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CHARACTER BUILDING 



OTHER BOOKS 

BY 

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 



UP FROM SLAVERY" 

"THE FUTURE 
OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO 



CHARACTER 
BUILDING 



BEING ADDRESSES DELIVERED 
ON SUNDAY EVENINGS TO THE 
STUDENTS OF TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE 



By 



BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 




NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1902 









THF UBFARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
t-wi Coptte Received 

JUN. 25 1902 

EIHT ENTRY 
fXXc. No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1902, by 

Booker T. Washington 

Published June, 1902 



^rtrttftt fig jKanfjattan ^xess, 
N*fo gorft, 8S. X. «. 



l?t 



TO THE 
OFFICERS AND TEACHERS OF 

QL\)c ^uskeg^e formal arib Snfcttstrial Institute 

WHO HAVE UNSELFISHLY AND LOYALLY 

STOOD BY AND SUPPORTED ME 

IN MY EFFORTS TO BUILD 

THIS INSTITUTION 



PUBLISHERS' EXPLANATION 

Mr. Washington's habit has for many years 
been to deliver a practical, straightforward ad- 
dress to the students of Tuskegee Institute on 
Sunday evening. These addresses have had 
much to do with the building up of the character 
of his race, for they are very forcible explana- 
tions of character building. The speaker has put 
into them his whole moral earnestness, his broad 
common-sense and, in many places, his eloquence. 
Many of Mr. Washington's friends have said that 
some of these addresses are the best of his 
utterances. 

They have an additional interest because they 
show him at his work and give an inside view of 
the school. 

This volume is made up of selections from 
these addresses chosen by Mr. Washington 
himself. 



PREFACE 

A number of years ago, when the Tuskegee 
Normal and Industrial Institute was quite small, 
with only a few dozen students and two or three 
teachers, I began the practice of giving what were 
called Sunday Evening Talks to the students and 
teachers. These addresses were always delivered 
in a conversational tone and much in the same 
manner that I would speak to my own children 
around my fireside. As the institution gradually 
grew from year to year, friends suggested that 
these addresses ought to be preserved, and for 
that reason during the past few years they have 
been stenographically reported. For the purpose 
of this book they have been somewhat revised; 
and I am greatly indebted to my secretary, Mr. 
Emmett J. Scott, and to Mr. Max Bennett Thrash- 
er, for assisting me in the revision and in putting 
them into proper shape for publication; and to 
Mr. T. Thomas Fortune for suggesting that these 
addresses be published in book form. 



PREFACE 

In these addresses I have attempted from week 
to week to speak straight to the hearts of our 
students and teachers and visitors concerning 
the problems and questions that confront them 
in their daily life here in the South. The most 
encouraging thing in connection with the making 
of these addresses has been the close attention 
which the students and teachers and visitors have 
always paid, and the hearty way in which they 
have spoken to me of the help that they have re- 
ceived from them. 

During the past four years these addresses have 
been published in the school paper each week. 
This paper, The Tuskegee Student, has a wide 
circulation among our graduates and others in 
the South, so that in talking to our students on 
Sunday evening I have felt in a degree that I was 
speaking to a large proportion of the coloured 
people in the South. If there is anything in these 
addresses which will be of interest or service to a 
still wider audience, I shall feel I have been more 
than repaid for any effort that I have put forth 
in connection with them. 

Booker T. Washington. 
Tuskegee, Alabama. 



CONTENTS 



Two Sides of Life . 

Helping Others 

Some of the Rocks Ahead 

On Influencing By Example 

The Virtue of Simplicity 

Have You Done Your Best ? . 

Don't Be Discouraged . 

On Getting a Home 

Calling Things By Their Right Names 

European Impressions . 

The Value of System In Home Life 

What Will Pay ? 

Education that Educates 

The Importance of 'Being Reliable 

The Highest Education 

Unimproved Opportunities 

Keeping Your Word 

Some Lessons of the Hour . 

The Gospel of Service 

Your Part in the Negro Conference 

What Is To Be Our Future? 



y 



3 
ii 

19 

27 

33 
43 
5i 
57 
63 
7i 
81 

87 

95 
i°3 
in 
119 

133 
141 
149 

157 . 
165 



>; 



CONTENTS. 



Some Great Little Things . 

To Would-Be Teachers . 

The Cultivation of Stable Habits 

What You Ought to Do 

Individual Responsibility 

Getting On In the World 

Each One His Part . 

What Would Father and Mother 

Object Lessons . • 

Substance vs. Shadow 

Character as Shown in Dress 

Sing the Old Songs 

Getting Down to Mother Earth 

A Penny Saved 

Growth 

Last Words • 



Say? 



173 
181 

187 

i93 
203 

213 

217 

225 

233 
239 

24s 

251 

259 
267 

277 
283 



CHARACTER BUILDING 



TWO SIDES OF LIFE 

There are quite a number of divisions into 
which life can be divided, but for the purposes of 
this evening I am going to speak of two ; the bright 
side of life and the dark side. 

In thought, in talk, in action, I think you will 
find that you can separate life into these two 
divisions — the dark side and the bright side, the 
discouraging side and the encouraging side. You 
will find, too, that there are two classes of people, 
just as there are two divisions of the subject. 
There is one class that is schooling itself, and con- 
stantly training itself, to look upon the dark side of 
life ; and there is another class, made up of people 
who are, consciously or unconsciously, constantly 
training themselves to look upon the bright side 
of life. 

Now it is not wise to go too far in either direc- 
tion. The person who schools himself to see the 
dark side of life is likely to make a mistake, and 
the person who schools himself to look only upon 
the bright side of life, forgetting all else, also is 
apt to make a mistake. 

3 



4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Notwithstanding this, I think I am right in 
saying that the persons who accomplish most in 
this world, those to whom on account of their 
helpfulness the world looks most for service — 
those who are most useful in every way — are those 
who are constantly seeing and appreciating the 
bright side as well as the dark side of life. 

You will sometimes find two persons who get 
up in the morning, perhaps a morning that is over- 
cast with shadows — a damp, wet, rainy, uninvit- 
ing morning — and one of these persons will speak 
of the morning as being gloomy, will speak of 
the mud-puddles about the house, of the rain, 
and of all of the disagreeable features. The 
second person, the one who has schooled him- 
self to see the brighter side of life, the beautiful 
things in life, will speak of the beauties that are 
in the rain drops, and the freshness of the newly 
bathed flowers, shrubs and trees. Notwithstand- 
ing the gloomy and generally disconsolate ap- 
pearance of things, he will find something attrac- 
tive in the scene out of doors, and will discover 
something in the gloomy morning that will cheer 
him. 

Suppose that you see these same two persons 
eat their breakfast. Perhaps they will find out 



TWO SIDES OF LIFE 5 

that the rolls are bad, but that the coffee is ex- 
cellent. If the rolls are poor, it is a great deal 
better in such a case to get into the habit— a habit 
that you will find pays from every standpoint — 
of being able to forget how unpalatable they are, 
and to let your thoughts dwell upon the good 
and satisfactory coffee. Call the attention of 
your near neighbour at the table to the excellence 
of the coffee. What is the result of that kind of 
schooling ? You will grow up to be an individual 
whom people will like to see coming near them— 
an individual to whom people will go for encour- 
agement when the hours are dark, and when 
everything seems to be discouraging. 

In just the same way, when you go into the 
class-rooms to recite your lessons, do not dwell 
upon any mistakes that you may think you see 
the teacher make, or upon any weakness in the 
presentation of the lesson. All teachers make 
mistakes sometimes, and you may depend upon 
it that it is an excellent teacher and a person of 
fine character who, when he or she has made a 
mistake, says frankly and plainly, "I have made 
a mistake, " or "I don't know. " It takes a very 
good and a very bright teacher to say, " I don't 
know." No teacher knows everything about 



6 CHARACTER BUILDING 

every subject. A good teacher will say frankly 
and clearly, "I don't know. I cannot answer 
that question." 

Let me tell you, right here, too, that when you 
go out from here to become teachers yourselves — 
as a large proportion of you will go — whenever 
you get to a point where a student asks you a 
question which you are not able to answer, 
or asks you something about a subject on 
which you are not well informed, you will 
find it better to say frankly and honestly, 
"I am unable to answer your question." 
Your students will respect you a great deal 
more for your frankness and honesty. Edu- 
cation is not what a person is able to hold in his 
head, so much as it is what a person is able to find. 
I believe it was Daniel Webster who said that 
the truly educated man was not the one who had 
all knowledge in his head, but the one who knew 
where to look for information upon any subject 
upon which at any time he might want informa- 
tion. Each individual who wishes to succeed 
must get that kind of discipline. He must get 
such training that he will know where to go and 
get facts, rather than try to train himself to 
hold all facts in his head. 



TWO SIDES OF LIFE 7 

I want you to go out from this institution so 
trained and so developed that you will be con- 
stantly looking for the bright, encouraging and 
beautiful things in life. It is the weak individ- 
ual, as a rule, who is constantly calling attention 
to the other side — to the dark and discouraging 
things of life. When you go into your class- 
rooms, I repeat, try to forget and overlook any 
weak points that you may think you see. Re- 
member, and dwell upon, the consideration that 
has been given to the lesson, the faithfulness with 
which it was prepared, and the earnestness with 
which it is presented. Try to recall and to 
remember every good thing and every encourag- 
ing thing which has come under your observation, 
whether it has been in the class-room, or in the 
shop, or in the field. No matter where you are, 
seize hold on the encouraging things with which 
you come in contact. 

In connection with the personality of their 
teachers, it is very unfortunate for students to 
form a habit of continually finding fault, of criti- 
cising, of seeing nothing but what the student 
may think are weak points. Try to get into a 
frame of mind where you will be constantly seeing 
and calling attention to the strong and beautiful 



8 CHARACTER BUILDING 

things which yott observe in the life and work 
of your teachers. Grow into the habit of talking 
about the bright side of life. When you meet 
a fellow student, a teacher, or anybody, or when 
you write letters home, get into the habit of call- 
ing attention to the bright things of life that you 
have seen, the things that are beautiful, the 
things that are charming. Just in proportion as 
you do this, you will find that you will not only 
influence yourself in the right direction, but that 
you will also influence others that Way. It is a 
very bad habit to get into, that of being continu- 
ally moody and discouraged, and of making the 
atmosphere uncomfortable for everybody who 
comes within ten feet of you. There are some 
people who are so constantly looking on the dark 
side of life that they cannot see anything but 
that side. Everything that comes from their 
mouths is unpleasant, about this thing and that 
thing, and they make the whole atmosphere 
around them unpleasant for themselves and for 
everybody with whom they come in contact. 
Such persons are surely undesirable. Why, I 
have seen people coming up the road who caused 
me to feel like wanting to cross over on to the other 
side of the way so as not to meet them. I didn't 



TWO SIDES OF LIFE 9 

want to hear their tales of misery and woe. I 
had heard those tales so many times that I didn't 
want to get into the atmosphere of the people 
who told them. 

It is often very easy to influence others in the 
wrong direction, and to grow into such a moody 
fault-finding disposition that one not only is mis- 
erable and unhappy himself, but makes every 
one with whom he comes in contact miserable 
and unhappy. The persons who live constantly 
in a fault-finding atmosphere, who see only the 
dark side of life, become negative characters. 
They are the people who never go forward. They 
never suggest a line of activity. They live simply 
on the negative side of life. Now, as students, 
you cannot afford to grow in that way. We want 
to send each one of you out from here, not as a 
negative force, but as a strong, positive, helpful 
force in the world. You will not accomplish the 
task which we expect of you if you go with a 
moody, discouraged, fault-finding disposition. 
To do the most that lies in you, you must go with 
a heart and head full of hope and faith in the 
world, believing that there is work for you to do, 
believing that you are the person to accomplish that 
work, and the one who is going to accomplish it. 



io CHARACTER BUILDING 

In nine cases out of ten, the person who culti- 
vates the habit of looking on the dark side of life 
is the little person, the miserable person, the one 
who is weak in mind, heart and purpose. On 
the other hand, the person who cultivates the 
habit of looking on the bright side of life, and who 
calls attention to the beautiful and encouraging 
things in life is, in nine cases out of ten, the strong 
individual, the one to whom the world goes for 
intelligent advice and support. I am trying to 
get you to see, as students, the best things in life. 
Do not be satisfied with second-hand or third- 
hand things in life. Do not be satisfied until 
you have put yourselves into that atmosphere 
where you can seize and hold on to the very 
highest and most beautiful things that can be got 
out of life. 



HELPING OTHERS 

There are a few essential things in an institu- 
tion of this kind that I think it is well for you to 
keep ever before you. 

This institution does not exist for your educa- 
tion alone ; it does not exist for your comfort and 
happiness altogether, although those things are 
important, and we keep them in mind; it exists 
that we may give you intelligence, skill of hand, 
and strength of mind and heart ; and we help you 
in these ways that you, in turn, may help others. 
We help you that you may help somebody else, 
and if you do not do this, when you go out from 
here, then our work here has been in vain. 

You would be surprised to know how small a 
part of your own expenses you pay here. You 
pay but little; and by reason of that fact it fol- 
lows that as trustees of the funds which are given 
to this institution, we have no right to keep an 
individual here who we do not think is going to 
be able to go out and help somebody else. We 
have no right to keep a student here who we do 

ii 



i2 CHARACTER BUILDING 1 

not think is strong enough to go out and be of 
assistance to somebody else. We are here for 
the purpose of educating you, that you may be- 
come strong, intelligent and helpful. 

If you were paying the cost of your board here, 
and for your tuition, and fuel and lights, then we 
should have a different problem. But so long 
as it is true that you pay so small a proportion 
of your expenses as you do, we must keep in view 
the fact that we have no right to keep a student 
here, no matter how much we may sympathize 
with him or her, unless that student is going to 
be able to do somebody else some good. Every 
young man and every young woman should feel 
that he or she is here on trust, that every day 
here is a sacred day, that it is a day that belongs 
to the race. Our graduates, and the majority 
of the students that have gone out from here, 
have ever had an unselfish spirit, and have been 
willing to go out and work at first for small sal- 
aries, and in uncomfortable places, where in a large 
degree conditions have been discouraging and 
desolate. We believe that kind of spirit will con- 
tinue to exist in this institution, and that we shall 
continue to have students who will go out from 
here to make other persons strong and useful. 



HELPING OTHERS 13 

Now no individual can help another individual 
unless he himself is strong. You notice that the 
curriculum here goes along in three directions — 
along the line of labour, of academic training, and 
of moral and religious training. We expect those 
who are here to keep strong, and to make them- 
selves efficient in these three directions, in each 
of which you are to learn to be leaders. 

Some people are able to do a thing when they 
are directed to do it, but people of that kind are 
not worth very much. There are people in the 
world who never think, who never map out any- 
thing for themselves, who have to wait to be told 
what to do. People of that kind are not worth 
anything. They really ought to pay rent for the 
air they breath, for they only vitiate it. Now 
we do not want such people as those here. We 
want people who are going to think, people who 
are going to prepare themselves. I noticed an 
incident this morning. Did you ever hear that 
side door creak on its hinges before this morning ? 
The janitor ought to have noticed that creaking 
and put some oil on the hinges without waiting 
to be told to do it. Then, again, this morning 
I noticed that after it had been raining hard for 
twenty-four hours, when it was wet and muddy, 



i 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

no provision had been made to protect the hogs 
at the sty, and they were completely covered 
with mud. Now the person who had charge of 
the sty should not have waited for some one to tell 
him to go down there and put some straw in for 
bedding and put boards over the sty to keep the 
animals dry. No one in charge of the hogs ought 
to have waited to be told to do a thing like that. 
The kind of persons we want here are those who 
are not going to wait for you to tell them to do 
such things, but who will think of them for them- 
selves and do them. If we cannot turn out a 
man here who is capable of taking care of a pig 
sty, how can we expect him to take care of affairs 
of State ? 

Then, again, some of you are expected to take 
care of the roads. I should have liked to have 
seen boys this morning so much interested in 
working on the roads that they would have put 
sawdust from this building to the gate. I should 
have liked to see them put down some boards, 
and arrange for the water to drain off. We want 
such fellows as those here. The ones we want 
are the ones who are going to think of such things 
as these without being told. That is the only 
kind of people worth having. Those who have 



HELPING OTHERS 15 

to wait to have somebody else put ideas into 
their minds are not worth much of anything. 
And, to be plain with you, we cannot have such 
people here. We want you to be thinkers, to 
be leaders. 

Yesterday, and the night before, I travelled on 
the Mobile and Ohio railroad from St. Louis to 
Montgomery, and there was a young man on the 
same train who was not more than twenty years 
old, I believe, who recently had been appointed 
a special freight agent of the road. All his con- 
versation was about freight. He talked freight 
to me and to everybody else. He would ask 
this man and that man if they had any freight, 
and if so he would tell them that they must have 
it shipped over the Mobile and Ohio railroad. 
Now that man will be general freight agent of 
that road some day: he may be president of the 
road. But suppose he had sat down and gone to 
sleep, and had waited for some one to come to him 
to inquire the best way to ship freight. Do you 
suppose he would ever have secured any freight 
to ship? 

Begin to think. If you cannot learn to think, 
why, you will be of no use to yourself or anybody 
else. Every once in a while — about every three 



1 6 CHARACTER BUILDING 

months— we have to go through the process of 
"weeding out" among the students. We are 
going to make that "weeding out" process more 
strict this year than ever before. We are com- 
pelled to get rid of every student here who is 
weak in mind, weak in morals, or weak in in- 
dustry. We cannot keep a student here unless 
he counts for one. You must count one your- 
self. You eat for one, you drink for one, and 
you sleep for one; and so you will have to count 
for one if you are going to stay here. 

I want you to go out into the world, not to 
have an easy time, but to make sacrifices, and 
to help somebody else. There are those who 
need your help and your sacrifice. You may be 
called upon to sacrifice a great deal; you may 
have to work for small salaries ; you may have to 
teach school in uncomfortable buildings; you 
may have to work in desolate places, and the sur- 
roundings may be in every way discouraging. 
And when I speak of your going out into life, 
I do not confine you to the schoolroom. I be- 
lieve that those who go out and become farmers, 
and leaders in other directions, as well as teachers, 
are to succeed. 

The most interesting thing connected with 



HELPING OTHERS 17 

this institution is the magnificent record that 
our graduates are making. As the institution 
grows larger, we do not want to lose the spirit 
of self-sacrifice, the spirit of usefulness which the 
graduates and the students who have gone out 
from here have shown. We want you to help 
somebody else. We want you not to think of 
yourselves alone. The more you do to make 
somebody else happy, the more happiness will 
you receive in turn. If you want to be happy, 
if you want to live a contented life, if you want 
to live a life of genuine pleasure, do something 
for somebody else. When you feel unhappy, 
disagreeable and miserable, go to some one else 
who is miserable and do that person an act of 
kindness, and you will find that you will be made 
happy. The miserable persons in this world are 
the ones whose hearts are narrow and hard; the 
happy ones are those who have great big hearts. 
Such persons are always happy. 



SOME OF THE ROCKS AHEAD 

I feel sure that I can be of some degree of ser- 
vice to you to-night, in helping you to anticipate 
some of the troubles that you are going to meet 
during the coming year. " Do not look for trou- 
ble, " is a safe maxim to follow, but it is equally 
safe to prepare for trouble. 

All of you realize, of course, that where we have 
so large a machine as we happen to have here — 
when I speak of machine in this way you will 
understand that I refer to the school — it takes 
some time to get it into perfect order, or anything 
bordering upon perfect running order. Now, I 
repeat, it is the wise individual who prepares him- 
self beforehand for the day of difficulties, for the 
day of discouragements, for the rainy day. It is 
the wise individual who makes up his mind that 
life is not going to be all sunshine, that all is not 
going to be perpetual pleasure. What is true of 
everyday life is true of school life; there are a 
number of difficulties which it is probable you 
are going to meet or which are going to meet you 

19 



2o CHARACTER BUILDING 

during the coming school year, and which, if 
possible, I want you to prepare yourselves against 
as wisely as you can. 

In the first place, a great many of you are go- 
ing to be disappointed — if this has not already 
been the case — in the classes to which you will 
be assigned. The average individual thinks he 
knows a great deal more than he does know. The 
individual who really knows more than he thinks 
he knows is very rare indeed. When a student 
gets to the point where he knows more than he 
thinks he knows, that student is about ready to 
leave school. I w sh a very large number of you 
had reached that point. I repeat, numbers of 
you are going to be disappointed during the year 
as to the classes to which you are going to be 
assigned. 

Now, I want to give you this advice. Before 
you go to an institution examine the catalogue 
of that school. The catalogue will give you all 
the information about the school. Then make 
up your mind whether or not you have faith in 
that institution. Find out if it is the school you 
wish to attend, and then decide if you have faith 
enough in it to become its pupil. Then, if you 
have once done this, make up your mind that 



SOME OF THE ROCKS AHEAD 21 

those who are placed over you as your teachers 
have had more experience than you can have 
had, and that they are therefore able to advise 
you as to your classes. Make up your mind that 
if you are asked to go into a lower class than you 
think your ability entitles you to go into, you are 
going to follow the advice and instruction of the 
people who are older than you and who have 
more education than you have. 

Another way in which you are going to be dis- 
appointed, and be made homesick, perhaps, if 
you have not already been made so, is in the 
rooms to which you are going to be assigned. 
You are going to get rooms that you do not like. 
They will not be, perhaps, as attractive as you 
desire, or they will be too crowded. You are 
going to be given persons for room mates with 
whom you think it is going to be impossible to 
get along pleasantly, people who are not congenial 
to you. During the hot months your rooms are 
going to be too hot, and during the cold months 
they are going to be too cold. You are going to 
meet with all these difficulties in your rooms. 
Make up your mind that you are going to con- 
quer them. I have often said that the students 
who in the early years of this school had such 



22 CHARACTER BUILDING 

hard times with their rooms have succeeded 
grandly. Many of you now live in palaces, com- 
pared to the rooms which those students had. 
I am sure that the students who attend this 
school find that the institution • is better fitted 
every year to take care of them than it was the 
year previous. From year to year there has been 
a steady growth in the accommodations, and 
that is all that we can wish or expect. From 
year to year we do not forget that it is our duty 
to make students more comfortable than in pre- 
vious years, and we are steadily growing in that 
direction. But notwithstanding all this we can- 
not do all that we want to do. 

Make up your minds, then, that you are going 
to find difficulties in your room, in reference to 
your room mates, the heat, the cold, and any 
number of things that concern your stay in the 
buildings. But in all these matters keep in mind 
the high purpose for which you came here — to 
get an education. Get that thought into your 
heart and body, and it will enable you to be the 
master of all these little things, all these minor 
and temporary obstacles. 

Many of you are going to be disappointed in 
regard ' to your food. Notwithstanding all the 



SOME OF THE ROCKS AHEAD 23 

care we may try to take, and want to take, many 
of you are going to be disappointed in this re- 
spect. But how little is the meaning of one 
meal, how little a thing is being inconvenienced 
by one meal, as compared with something that 
is going to be a part of you all the remainder of 
your lives. It is not for the food, the room, or 
the minor things that you have come here; it is 
to get something into your minds and hearts that 
will make you better, that will stand by you and 
hold you up, and make you useful all through life. 
Some of you are going to find it difficult to 
obey orders. Sometimes orders will be given 
you which you think are wrong and unjust. 
Perhaps orders will be given you sometimes that 
really are unjust. In that respect no institution 
is perfect. But I want you to learn this lesson 
in respect to orders — that it is always best to 
learn to obey orders and respect authority — that 
it is better ten times over for you to obey an 
order that you know is wrong, and which per- 
haps was given you in a wrong spirit or with a 
mistaken motive. It is better for you to obey 
even such an order as that, than it is for any 
individual to get into the habit of disobeying 
and not respecting those in authority. 



24 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Make up your mind that if you want to add 
to your happiness and strength of character, 
you are, before all things else, going to learn to 
obey. If it should happen that for a minute, or 
five minutes, one of your fellow-students is placed 
in authority over you, that student's commands 
should be sacred. You should obey his com- 
mands just as quickly as you would obey those 
of the highest officer in this institution. Learn 
that it is no disgrace to obey those in authority. 
One of the highest and surest signs of civiliza- 
tion is that a people have learned to obey the 
commands of those who are placed over them. 
I want to add here that it is to the credit of this 
institution that, with very few exceptions, the 
students have always been ready and willing to 
respect authority. 

I want you to see, as I think you will see, that 
having a hard time, running up against difficul- 
ties here and there, helps to make an individual 
strong, helps to make him powerful. This is the 
point I want to make with you; that one of the 
reasons you are here is that you may learn to 
overcome difficulties. I have named some that 
you may expect to meet, but I have not named 
them all. They will keep springing up all the 



SOME OF THE ROCKS AHEAD 25 

time. Just in proportion as you learn to rise 
above them and trample them under your feet, 
just in that proportion will you accomplish the 
high purpose for which you came here, and help 
to accomplish the purpose for which this institu- 
tion exists. 



<& 






ON INFLUENCING BY EXAMPLE 

A few evenings ago, while in Cincinnati, I was 
very pleasantly surprised after speaking at a 
large meeting to be invited by a company of 
young coloured men to attend for a few minutes 
a reception at their club room. I expected, when 
I went to the place designated, to find a number 
of young men who, perhaps, had hired a room 
and fitted it up for the purpose of gratifying their 
own selfish pleasures. I found that this was not 
the case. Instead, I found fifteen young men 
whose ages ranged from eighteen to twenty years, 
who had banded themselves together in a club 
known as the "Winona Club," for the purpose 
of improving themselves, and further, for the 
purpose, so far as possible, of getting hold of 
other young coloured men in the city who were 
inclined in the wrong direction. I found a room 
beautifully fitted up, with a carpet on the floor, 
with beautiful pictures upon the walls, with 
books and pictures in their little library, and 
with fifteen of the brightest, most honest, and 

27 



28 CHARACTER BUILDING 

cleanest looking young men that it has been my 
pleasure to meet for a long time. 

It was a very pleasant surprise to find these 
young men, especially in the midst of the tempta- 
tions of a Northern city, in the midst of evil sur- 
roundings, banded together for influencing others 
in the right direction. 

These young men came together, and at their 
first meeting said that they were going to band 
themselves together for the purpose of improving 
themselves and helping others. They said that 
the first article in their constitution should be to 
the effect that there should be no gambling in 
that club; that there must be no strong drink 
allowed in that club, and that there should be 
nothing there that was not in keeping with the 
life of a true and high-minded gentleman. 

I repeat that it was very pleasant and encourag- 
ing for me to find such work as this going on in 
Cincinnati. What was equally gratifying, and 
surprising, was that at the close of the reception 
they presented me with a neat sum of money 
which they had collected, and asked that this 
money be used to defray the expenses of some 
student at the school here. 

Now the point I especially want to make to- 



ON INFLUENCING BY EXAMPLE 29 

night is this: all of you must bear in mind the 
fact that you are not only to keep yourselves 
clean, and pure, and sober, and true, in every 
respect, but you owe a constant responsibility to 
yourself to see that you exert a helpful influence 
on others also. 

A large proportion of you are to go from here 
into great cities. Some of you will go into such 
cities as Montgomery, and some, perhaps, will go 
into the cities of the North — although I hope that 
the most of you will see your way clear to remain 
in the South. I believe that you will do better 
to remain in the country districts than to go into 
the cities. I believe that you will find it to your 
advantage in every way to try to live in a small 
town, or in a country district, rather than in a 
city. I believe that we are at our best in coun- 
try life — in agricultural life — and too often at 
our worst in city life. Now when you go out into 
the world for yourselves, you must remember in 
the first place that you cannot hold yourselves 
up unless you keep engaged and out of idleness. 
No idle person is ever safe, whether he be rich 
or poor. Make up your minds, whether you are 
to live in the city or in the country, that you are 
going to be constantly employed. 



30 CHARACTER BUILDING 

In a rich and prosperous country like America 
there is absolutely no excuse for persons living 
in idleness. I have little patience with persons 
who go around whining that they cannot find 
anything to do. Especially is this true in the 
South. Where the soil is cheap there is little or 
no excuse for any man or woman going about 
complaining that he or she cannot find work. 
You cannot set proper examples unless you, 
yourself, are constantly employed. See to it, 
then, whether you live in a city, a town, or in a 
country district, that you are constantly em- 
ployed when you are not engaged in the proper 
kind of recreation, or in rest. Unless you do this 
you will find that you will go down as thousands 
of our young men have gone down — as thousands 
of our young men are constantly going down — 
who yield to the temptations which beset them. 

Refrain from staking your earnings upon games 
of chance. See to it that you pass by those 
things which tend to your degradation. Teach 
this to others. Teach those with whom you 
come in contact that they cannot lead strong, 
moral lives unless they keep away from the 
gambling table. See to it that you regulate your 
life properly ; that you regulate your hours of sleep. 



ON INFLUENCING BY EXAMPLE 31 

Have the proper kinds of recreation. Quite a 
number of our young men in the cities stay up 
until twelve, one and two o'clock each night. 
Sometimes they are at a dance, and sometimes 
at the gambling table, or in some brothel, or 
drinking in some saloon. As a result they go 
late to their work, and in a short time you hear 
them complaining about having lost their posi- 
tions. They will tell you that they have lost their 
jobs on account of race prejudice, or because their 
former employers are not going to hire coloured 
help any longer. But you will find, if you learn 
the real circumstances, that it is much more likely 
they have lost their jobs because they were not 
punctual, or on account of carelessness. 

Then, too, you will find that you will go down if 
you yield to the temptation of indulging in strong 
drink. That is a thing that is carrying a great 
many of our young men down. I do not say that 
all of our men are of this class, or that all of them 
yield to temptations, because I can go into many 
of the large cities and find just such men as those 
in Cincinnati to whom I have referred. You 
cannot hope to succeed if you keep bad company. 
As far as possible try to form the habit of spend- 
ing your nights at home. There is nothing worse 



32 CHARACTER BUILDING 

for a young man or young woman than to get into 
the habit of thinking that he or she must spend 
every night on the street or in some public place. 
I want you, as you go out from this institution, 
whether you are graduates or not, whether you 
have been here one year or four years — to go out 
with the idea that you must set a high example 
for every one in your community. You must re- 
member that the people are watching you every 
day. If you yield to the temptation of strong 
drink, of going into bad company, others will do 
the same thing. They will shape their lives after 
yours. You must so shape your lives that the 
hundreds and thousands of those who are looking 
to you for guidance may profit by your example. 



THE VIRTUE OP SIMPLICITY 

I hope that you all paid strict attention to 
what Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr., who recently 
spoke to you, had to say. In the few words that 
he spoke, I think he told you the platform upon 
which this institution has been built. You will 
remember that he laid a great deal of stress upon 
the importance of the institution remaining 
simple, of keeping that degree of simplicity and 
thoroughness that it has always possessed. 

It is true that in the last few months the in- 
stitution has come into a great deal of prominence, 
and is meeting with what the world calls " success." 
But we must remember that very often it is with 
institutions as it is with individuals — success may 
injure them more than poverty. Now, this in- 
stitution will continue to succeed, will continue to 
have the good will and confidence, the co-opera- 
tion of the best and wisest and most generous 
people in the country, just so long as its faculty, 
its students, and all connected with it, remain 
simple, earnest and thorough. Just as soon as 

33 



34 CHARACTER BUILDING 

in any department there are indications that we 
are beginning to become what the world calls 
" stuck up, " just so soon will the people lose con- 
fidence in us, and will fail to support us, and just 
so soon will the institution begin to decay. We 
will grow in buildings, in industries, in apparatus, 
in the number of teachers and of students, and 
in the confidence of the people, just in proportion 
as we do what the institution has set out to do; 
that is, teach young men and women how to live 
simple, plain and honourable lives by learning 
how to do something uncommonly well. 

When I speak of humbleness and simplicity, I 
do not mean that it is necessary for us to lose sight 
of what the world calls manhood and womanhood ; 
that it is necessary to be cringing and unmanly; 
but you will find, in the long run, that the people 
who have the greatest influence in the world are 
the humble and simple ones. 

Now,'we must not only remain humble, but we 
must be very sure that whatever is done in every 
department of the school is thoroughly done. 
Any institution runs a great risk when it begins 
to grow — to grow larger in numbers or larger in 
any respect. It can succeed then only in pro- 
portion as those who have responsibilities are 



THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY 35 

conscientious in the highest degree. We can 
succeed in putting up good buildings only in pro- 
portion as every one performs well his part in the 
erection of each building. We can succeed only in 
proportion as the student who makes the mortar, 
who lays the bricks, puts his whole conscience 
into that work, and does it just as thoroughly 
as it is possible^ for him to do it. If he is mixing 
mortar, he must do it just as well as he can, and 
then, to-morrow, must do it still better than he 
did it to-day, and the next week better than he 
did it this week. The student who lays the bricks 
must learn to lay each brick as well as it is pos- 
sible for him to lay it, and then do still better 
work on the morrow. 

We must remember, too, that we have a cer- 
tain amount of responsibility to care for our build- 
ings, and that a great deal of interest should be 
taken not only in putting up all our buildings 
thoroughly, but in looking out for their preserva- 
tion as well. We must see to it that the buildings 
which the students have worked so hard to erect, 
and which generous friends have so kindly en- 
abled us to secure, are not marred in any way. 
You must make new students know that this 
property is yours, and that every building here 



36 CHARACTER BUILDING 

is yours. No student has any right to mar in 
any way what you have worked so hard to erect, 
and your friends have been generous enough to 
provide If you find a student drawing a lead 
pencil across a piece of plastering which you have 
put on, you must let that student know that he 
is destroying what you have worked hard to 
create, and that when he destroys that building 
he is destroying something which students yet to 
come should have the opportunity of enjoying. 

We want to be sure that in every industry, in 
every department of the institution, there is sim- 
plicity, humbleness, thoroughness. Whatever 
is intrusted to you to do in the industrial depart- 
ments, in the class rooms, be sure that you put 
your whole heart into that thing. 

We do not expect to have fine, costly buildings, 
nor do we want to have them. But we do expect 
to have well-constructed buildings, and attractive 
buildings; and, if we can go on in this simple, 
humble way, the time will come when we shall 
have all the buildings we need. Just in propor- 
tion as our friends see that we are worthy of these 
good things, they will come to us. 

We want to be sure, also, that in no depart- 
ment is there any wastefulness. We must try 






THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY 37 

to make every dollar go as far as possible. " We 
must stretch a dollar, " as I have heard Mr. Bald- 
win say, "until it can be stretched no further." 
Now, there will be waste unless we put our con- 
science into everything that we do. There will 
be waste in the boarding department, in the 
academic department, in the industrial depart- 
ment, in the religious department, in all the de- 
partments about us, unless we put our conscience 
into everything that we do. Let us be sure that 
not a single dollar that is given to us is wasted, 
because the same people who give to us are called 
upon almost every day in the week, each year, 
to give for hundreds of purposes, and they have 
to choose which they will support. They must 
decide whether they want to give to this cause, 
or to that cause, and they will give to us if we 
make them feel that we are more worthy than 
other similar institutions. 

We want, also, to be sure that we remain simple 
in our dress and in all our outward appearance. 
I do not like to see a young man who is poor, 
and whose tuition is being paid by some one, and 
who has no books, sometimes has no socks, some- 
times has no decent shoes, wearing a white, stiff, 
shining collar which he has sent away to be laund- 



38 CHARACTER BUILDING 

ered. I do not like to ask people to give money 
for such a young man as that. It is much better 
for a young man to learn to launder his collars 
himself, than to pretend to the world that he is 
what he is not. When you send a collar to the 
city laundry, it indicates that you have a bank 
account ; it indicates that you have money ahead, 
and can afford that luxury. Now I do not be- 
lieve that you can afford it ; and that kind of pre- 
tence and that kind of acting do not pay. 

Get right down to business, and, as I have said, 
if we cannot do up your collars well enough here 
to suit you, why, get some soap and water, and 
starch, and an iron, and learn to launder your 
own collars, and keep on laundering them until 
you can do them better than anybody else. 

I am not trying to discourage you about wear- 
ing nice collars. I like to see every collar shine. 
I like to see every collar as bright as possible. I 
like to see you wear good, attractive collars. I 
do not, however, want you to get the idea that 
collars make the man. You quite often see fine 
cuffs and collars, when there is no real man there. 
You want to be sure to get the man first. Be sure 
that the man is there, and if he is, the collars and 
the cuffs will come in due time. If there is no 



THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY 39 

man there, we may put on all the collars and cuffs 
we can get, and we shall find that they will not 
make the man. 

When you have finished school, after you have 
gone out and established yourselves in some kind 
of business, after you have learned to save money, 
and have got a good bank account ahead, if you 
are where the laundering is not sufficiently well 
done to suit you, why perhaps you can afford to 
send your collars forty or fifty miles away. But 
as I see you young men, I do not believe you can 
afford it. And if you can afford it, why, I should 
like to have you pay that money for a part of your 
tuition, which we now have to get some one else 
to pay for you. 

You want to be very sure, too, that as you go 
out into the world, you go out not ashamed to 
work; not ashamed to put in practice what you 
have learned here. As I come in contact with 
our graduates, I am very glad to be able to say 
that in almost no instance have I found a student 
who has been at Tuskegee long enough to learn 
the ways of the institution, or a graduate who 
has been ashamed to use his hands. Now that 
reputation we want to keep up. We want to be 
sure that such a reputation as this follows every 
student who goes out. 



4 o CHARACTER BUILDING 

And then be very sure that you are simple in 
your words and your language. Write your 
letters in the simplest and plainest manner possi- 
ble. Who of you did not understand what was 
said by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., when he 
spoke from this platform a few evenings ago ? Was 
there a single word, or a single reference, or figure 
of speech, that he used that you did not under- 
stand the full force of, or did not appreciate? 
Here is a man whose father is perhaps the richest 
man in the world, and yet there was no "tom- 
foolery" about his speech. Every word was 
simple and plain, and everybody could under- 
stand everything that he said. He used no Latin 
or Greek quotations. 

Some people get the idea that if they can get a 
little education, and a little money ahead, and 
can talk so that no one can understand them, 
they are educated. That is a great mistake, 
because nobody understands them, and they do 
not understand themselves. Now, the world has 
no sympathy with that kind of thing. If you 
have anything to write, write it in the plainest 
manner possible. Use just as few words as possi- 
ble, and as simple words as possible. If you can 
get a word with one syllable that will express your 



THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY 41 

meaning, use it in preference to one of two sylla- 
bles. If you can not get a suitable word of one 
syllable, try to get one of two syllables instead 
of three or four. At # any rate make your words 
just as short as possible, and your sentences 
as short and simple as you can make them. 
There is great power in simplicity, simplicity of 
speech, simplicity of life in every form. The 
world has no patience with people who are super- 
ficial, who are trying to show off, who are trying 
to be what the world knows they are not. 

You know you sometimes get frightened and 
discouraged about the laws that some of the 
States are inclined to pass, and that some of them 
are passing, but there is no State, there is no 
municipality, there is no power on earth, that 
can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple 
and useful life. Every individual who learns to 
live such a life will find an opportunity to make 
his influence felt. 

No one can in any way permanently hold back 
a race of people who are getting those elements 
of strength which the world recognizes, which the 
world has always recognized, and which it always 
will recognize, as indicating the highest type of 
manhood and womanhood. There is nothing, 



42 CHARACTER BUILDING 

then, to be discouraged about. We are going 
forward, and we shall keep going forward if we do 
not let these difficulties which sometimes occur 
discourage us. You will find that every man 
and every woman who is worthy to be respected 
and praised and recognized will be respected and 
praised and recognized. 



HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BEST? 

[This talk was given at the middle of the school year.] 

If you have not already done so — and I hope 
you have — I think that you will find this a con- 
venient season for each one of you to stop and to 
consider your school-year very carefully; to con- 
sider your life in school from every point of view ; 
to place yourselves, as it were, in the presence of 
your parents, or your friends at home; to place 
yourselves in the presence of those who stand by 
and support this institution; to place yourselves 
in the presence of your teachers and of all who are 
in any way interested in you. 

Now, suppose you were to-night sitting down 
by your parents' side, by their fireside, looking 
them in the face, or by the side of your nearest 
and dearest friends, those who have done the 
most for you, those who have stood by you most 
closely. Suppose you were in that position. I 
want to ask you to answer this question, In 
considering your school life — in your studies, for 
example — during the year, thus far, have you 
done your best ? 

43 



44 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Have you been really honest with your parents, 
who have struggled, who have sacrificed, who 
have toiled for years, in ways you do not know of, 
in order that you might come here, and in order 
that you might remain here? Have you really 
been interested in them? Have you really been 
honest with your teachers? Have you been 
honest with those who support this institution? 
Have you really, in a word, in the preparation 
and recitation of your lessons, done your level 
best ? Right out from your hearts, have you done 
your best ? I fear that a great many of you, when 
you look your conscience squarely in the face, 
when you get right down to your real selves, at 
the bottom of your lives, must answer that you 
have not done your best. There have been 
precious minutes, there have been precious hours, 
that you have completely thrown away, hours 
for which you cannot show a single return. 

Now, if you have not done your level best, right 
out straight from your heart, in the preparation 
and recitation of your lessons, and in all your 
work, it is not too late for you to make amends. 
I should be very sorry if I waited until the end 
of the term to remind you of this, because it would 
then be too late. There would be many of you with 



HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BEST? 4 5 

long faces, who would say, if you were reminded 
then, that you could have done so much better, 
would have been so much more honest with your 
parents and friends, if you had only been reminded 
earlier; and that in every way you would have 
made your lives so different from what they had 
been. Now, it isn't too late. 

Grant, as I know that numbers of you will 
grant, that you have thrown away precious time, 
that you have been indifferent to the advice of 
your teachers, that you really haven't been honest 
with yourselves in the preparation of your lessons, 
that you have been careless in your recitations. 
I want you to be really honest with yourselves 
and say, from to-night on, "I am going to take 
charge of myself. I am not going to drift in this 
respect. I am going to row up the stream; and 
my life, as a schoolboy or a schoolgirl, is going 
to be different from what it has been." 

Now place yourselves again in the presence of 
your parents, of those who are dearest to you, and 
answer this question, In your work, in your in- 
dustrial work here, have you done your real best ? 
In the field and in the shop, with the plough, the 
trowel, the hammer, the saw, have you done your 
level best ? Have you done your best in the sew- 



46 CHARACTER BUILDING 

ing room and in the cooking classes? Have you 
justified your parents in the sacrifice of time and 
money which they have made in order to allow 
you to come here? If you haven't done your 
best in these respects — and many of you haven't — 
there is still time for you to become a different 
man or woman. It isn't too late. You can turn 
yourselves completely around. Those of you 
who have been indifferent and slow, those of you 
who have been thoughtless and slovenly, those 
of you who have tried to find out how little effort 
of body or mind you could put into your industrial 
work here, — it isn't too late for you to turn your- 
selves completely around in that respect, and to 
say that from to-night you are going to be a differ- 
ent man or woman. 

Have you done your level best in making your 
surroundings what the school requires, what your 
school life should be, in learning how to take care 
of your bodies, in learning how to keep your 
bodies clean and pure, in the conscientious, sys- 
tematic use of the tooth brush ? Have you done 
your best ? Have you been downright honest in 
that respect, alone? Have you used the tooth 
brush just because you felt it was a requirement 
of the school, or because you felt that you could 



HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BEST? 47 

not be clean or honest with your room-mates, 
that you could not be yourself in the sight of God, 
unless you used the tooth brush ? Have you used 
it in the dark, as well as in the light ? Have you 
learned that, even if your room was not going to 
be inspected on a certain day, it was just as im- 
portant that you learn the lesson of being con- 
scientious about keeping it in order as if you knew 
it was going to be inspected? Have you been 
careful in this respect? Have you shifted this 
duty, or neglected that duty ? Have you thrown 
some task off on to your room-mates ? Have you 
tried to "slide out" of it, or, as it were, "to get 
by," as the slang phrase goes, without doing really 
honest, straightforward work, as regards the 
cleanliness of your room, the improvement of it, 
the making of it more attractive ? 

Have you been really honest with yourselves and 
your parents, and with those who spend so much 
money for the support of this institution ? Above 
all, have have you been really true to your parents 
and to your best selves in growing in strength 
of character, in strength of purpose, in being 
downright honest ? Those of you who came here, 
for instance, with the habit of telling falsehoods, 
of deceiving in one way or another; those of you 



48 CHARACTER BUILDING 

who came here with the temptation, perhaps, 
in too many cases, overshadowing you and over- 
powering you, to take property which does not 
belong to you; have you been really honest in 
overcoming habits of this kind? Are you build- 
ing character? Are you less willing to yield to 
temptation? Are you more able to overcome 
temptation now than you were? If you are not 
more able, you have not grown in this respect. 

But it is not too late. If there are some of you 
who have been unfortunate enough to allow 
little mean habits, mean dispositions, mean acts, 
mean thoughts, mean words, to get the upper- 
most of you — in a word, if your life thus far has 
been a little, dried-up, narrow life, get rid of that 
life. Throw open your heart. Say now, "I am 
not going to be conquered by little, mean thoughts, 
words and acts any longer. Hereafter all my 
thoughts, all my words, all my acts, shall be 
large, generous, high, pure." 

In a word, I want you to get hold of this idea, 
that you can make the future of your lives just 
what you want to make it. You can make it 
bright, happy, useful, if you learn this funda- 
mental lesson, and stick to it while in school, or 
after you go away from here, that it doesn't pay 






HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BEST? 49 

any individual to do any less than his very best. 
It doesn't pay to be anything else but downright 
honest in heart. Any person who is not honest, 
who is not trying to do his very best in the class- 
room or in the shop, no matter where he may be, 
will find out that it does not pay in the long run. 
You may think it best for a little while, but per- 
manently it does not pay any man or woman to 
be anything but really, downright honest, and 
to do his or her level best. 

Now I want you to think about these things, 
not only here in the chapel to-night, but to-morrow 
in your class-rooms, and with reference to every- 
thing you touch. I want to see you let it shine 
out, even at the very ends of your fingers, that you 
are doing your best in everything. Do this, and 
you will find at the end of the year that you are 
growing stronger, purer, and brighter, that you 
are making your parents and those interested in 
you happier, and that you are preparing your- 
selves to do what this institution and the country 
expect you to do. 



DON'T BE DISCOURAGED 

Last Sunday evening I spoke to you for a few 
minutes regarding the importance of determining 
to do the right thing in every phase of your school 
life. There are a few things that enter into 
student life which, in a very large degree, cause 
the untrue to fall by the wayside, and which pre- 
vent students from doing their very best. Among 
these things is the disposition to grow discour- 
aged. Very many people, very many students, 
who otherwise would succeed, who would go 
through school creditably, graduating with hon- 
ours, have failed to succeed because they became 
discouraged. 

Now there are a number of things in school life 
that cause a student to become discouraged, and 
I am going to try to enumerate a few of them, 
although I do not know that I shall mention nearly 
all of them. 

Students frequently become discouraged on 
account of their industrial work. It is not of the 
character that they want it to be, or they do not 

5i 



52 CHARACTER BUILDING 

get assigned to the trade they want to work at. 
Still others become discouraged because of their 
classroom studies. They find that their studies 
are difficult; that their lessons are too long and 
their memories too short. They find that they 
cannot understand the teacher, or they think 
they find that the teacher does not understand 
them. Some become discouraged because they 
think that they are entirely misunderstood, are 
misunderstood by their classmates and by their 
teachers. They think that their efforts in the 
classroom and in the shop are not properly appre- 
ciated. 

Others become discouraged because they feel 
that they are without friends. It seems to them 
that other students have friends on every hand 
who are encouraging them, who send them money, 
who supply them with clothing, and that they 
themselves have no such friends. 

You become discouraged for such reasons as 
these. You feel that your highest and best efforts 
are not appreciated. This tends to discourage 
you. There are not a few of you who get dis- 
couraged because you feel that you belong to a 
despised race ; that for a long time you have been 
trampled upon because of your colour, and be- 






DON'T BE DISCOURAGED 53 

cause of certain peculiar characteristics ; that you 
have been neglected or oppressed, and that there 
is no reason why you should make an effort to go 
forward ; that you belong to a race that is doomed 
to disappointment, to stay under, and to not 
succeed. 

Some of you become discouraged and despon- 
dent because of poverty. Perhaps here I strike 
the basis of the reason for most of the discourage- 
ment. You come here, and your parents disap- 
point you. They do not supply you with money. ' 
You become discouraged because they do not 
supply you with proper clothing, or with what 
you think you ought to have, and, very often, 
with such as you really ought to have, and that 
disheartens you. You find that other students 
have money, and you have none They have 
money not only for the necessities of school life, 
but for some of the luxuries, while you have not 
enough for even the bare necessities. Other 
students are more than supplied with clothing, 
while you are very scantily supplied. You 
shiver, in many cases, by reason of the cold, 
while others are comfortable and nicely dressed. 
Sometimes you are even ashamed to show your- 
self in public, because of the appearance of the 



54 CHARACTER BUILDING 

old coat, or trousers, or shoes that you have to 
wear. 

Some of you become discouraged because you 
find yourselves without the proper books. Some 
of you cannot get the money needed to purchase 
books, a tooth brush, and other necessary things. 
You find yourselves cramped and hampered on 
every hand. You are discouraged at this point 
and at that point, and you feel that nobody's lot 
is as hard as your own. You become discouraged, 
you become dissatisfied, and you feel like giving 
up. 

Now I want to suggest to you to-night that 
this very thing of discouragement, as an element 
in life, is for a purpose. I do not believe that 
anything, any element of your lives, is put into 
them without a purpose. I believe that every 
effort that we are obliged to make to overcome 
obstacles will give us strength, will give us a con- 
fidence in ourselves, that nothing else can give 
us. I would ten times rather see you having a 
hard struggle to elevate yourselves, having a 
hard time either at work on the farm, or on the 
buildings, or in the shops, without money and 
without clothes, than to see you here having too 
much money, and having everything that you 



DON'T BE DISCOURAGED 55 

want come to you without any effort on your part. 
You are blessed, as compared with some people. 
The man or woman who has money, without 
having had to work for it, who has all the com- 
forts of life, without effort, and who saves his 
own soul and perhaps the soul of somebody else, 
such an individual is rare, very rare indeed. 

Now it is not a curse to be situated as some of 
you are, and if you will make up your minds that 
you are going to overcome the obstacles and the 
difficulties by which you are surrounded, you will 
find that in every effort you make to overcome 
these difficulties you are growing in strength and 
confidence. Make up your minds that you are 
not going to allow anything to discourage you. 
Make up your minds that poor lessons, scoldings 
on the part of your teachers, want of money, want 
of books — that none of these shall discourage 
you. Make up your mind that in spite of race 
and colour, in spite of the obstacles that surround 
you, in spite of everything, you are going to suc- 
ceed in your school life, and are going to prepare 
yourself for usefulness hereafter. 

Every person who has grown to any degree of 
usefulness, every person who has grown to dis- 
tinction, almost without exception has been a 



56 CHARACTER BUILDING 

person who has risen by overcoming obstacles, 
by removing difficulties, by resolving that when 
he met discouragements he would not give up. 
Make up your minds that you are going to over- 
come every discouragement, and that you are 
not going to let any discouragement overcome 
you. Those of you who have been inclined to be 
moody and morose, or have been inclined to feel 
that the whole world is against you, that there 
is no use for you to try to elevate yourselves, 
make up your minds that your future is just as 
bright as that of anybody else Do this, and you 
will find that you have it in your own power to 
make your future bright or gloomy, just as you 
desire. 



ON GETTING A HOME 

Every coloured man owes it to himself, and to 
his children as well, to secure a home just as soon 
as possible. No matter how small the plot of 
ground may be, or how humble the dwelling placed 
.on it, something that can be called a home should 
be secured without delay. 

A home can be secured much easier than many 
imagine. A small amount of money saved from 
week to week, or from month to month, and 
carefully invested in a piece of land, will soon 
secure a site upon which to build a comfortable 
house. No individual should feel satisfied until 
he has a comfortable home. More and more the 
Southern States are making one of the conditions 
for voting, the ownership of at least $300 worth 
of property, so that persons who own homes will 
not only reap the benefits that come from own- 
ing a home, in other directions, but will also find 
themselves entitled to cast their ballot. 

Care should be taken as to the location of the 
land. It is of little advantage to secure a lot in 

57 



58 CHARACTER BUILDING 

some crowded, filthy alley. One should try to 
secure a lot on a good street, a street that is care- 
fully and well worked, so that the surroundings 
of the home will be enjoyable. Even if one has 
to go a good ways into the country to secure such 
a lot, it is much better than to buy a building 
spot on an unsightly, undesirable alley. 

I believe that our people do best, as a rule, to 
buy land in the country instead of in the city; 
but in either case we should not rest until we have 
secured a home in one place or the other. No 
man has a right to marry and run the risk of leav- 
ing his wife at his death without a home. 

I notice with regret that there are many of our 
people who have already bought homes, who, 
after they have secured the land, paid for it and 
built a cabin containing two or three rooms, do 
not seek to go any further in the improvement 
of the property. In the first place, in too many 
cases, the house and yard, especially the 
yard, are not kept clean. The fences are 
not kept in repair. Whitewash and paint 
are not used as they should be. After the 
house is paid for, the greatest care should be 
exercised to see that it is kept in first-class re- 
pair; that the walls of the house and the fences 






ON GETTING A HOME 59 

are kept neatly painted or whitewashed; that no 
palings are allowed to fall off the fence, or if they 
do fall off, to remain off. If there is a barn or a 
henhouse, these should be kept in repair, and 
should, like the house, be made to look neat and 
attractive by paint and whitewash. 

Paint and whitewash add a great deal to the 
value of a house. If persons would learn to use 
even a part of the time they spend in idle gossip 
or in standing about on the streets, in white- 
washing or painting their houses, it would make 
a great difference in the appearance of the build- 
ings, as well as add to their value. 

Only a short time ago, near a certain town, I 
visited the house — I could not call it a home — 
of a presiding elder, a man who had received 
considerable education, and who spent his time 
in going about over his district preaching to 
hundreds and thousands of coloured people; and 
yet the home of this man was almost a disgrace 
to him and to his race. The house was not painted 
or whitewashed; the fence was in the same con- 
dition; the yard was full of weeds; there were 
no walks laid out in the yard; there were no 
flowers in it. In fact everything on the outside 
of the house and in the yard presented a most 



6o CHARACTER BUILDING 

dismal and discouraging appearance. So far 
as I could see there was not a single vegetable 
around this house, nor did I see any chickens or 
fowls of any kind. 

This is not the way to live, and especially is 
it not the way for a minister or a teacher to live, 
for they are men who are supposed to lead their 
people not only by word but by example. Every 
minister and every teacher should make his home, 
his yard, and his garden, models for the people 
whom he attempts to teach and lead. I confess 
that I have no confidence in the preaching of a 
minister whose home is in the condition of the 
one I have described. There is no need why, 
as a race, we should get into the miserable and 
unfortunate habit of living in houses that are out 
of repair, that are not whitewashed or painted, 
that are not comfortable, and above all else, in 
houses that we do not own. There is no reason 
why we should not make our homes not only 
comfortable, but attractive, so that no one can 
tell from the outside appearance, at least, whether 
the house is occupied by a white family or a black 
family. 

After a house has been paid for, it not only 
should be improved from year to year and kept 



ON GETTING A HOME 61 

in good repair, but, as the family grows, new rooms 
should be added. The house should not only 
be made comfortable, but should be made con- 
venient. As soon as possible there should be a 
sitting room, where books and papers can be 
found, a room in which the whole family may 
read and study during the winter nights. I do 
not believe that any house is complete without a 
bathroom. As soon as possible every one of our 
houses should be provided with a bathroom, so 
that the body of every member of the family can 
be baptized every morning in clean, invigorating, 
fresh water. Such a bath puts one in proper 
condition for the work of the day, and not only 
keeps one well physically, but strong morally 
and religiously. 

Another important part of the home is the 
dining-room. The dining-room should be the 
most attractive and most comfortable room in 
the house. It should be large and airy, a room 
into which plenty of sunlight can come, and a 
room that can be kept comfortable both in the 
summer and in the winter. 

These suggestions are made to you with the 
hope that you will put them into practice, and also 
that you will influence others to do the same. 



62 CHARACTER BUILDING 

They are all suggestions that we, as a race, not- 
withstanding our poverty, in most cases can find 
a way to put into practice. Every one of them 
should be taken up by our teachers, our ministers 
and by our educated young people. They should 
be taught and urged in school, in church, in 
farmers' meetings, in women's meetings, and, 
in fact, wherever the people of the race come 
together. 






i 



CALLING THINGS BY THEIR RIGHT 
NAMES 

A few evenings ago I talked with you about 
the importance of learning to be simple, humble 
and child-like before going out into the world. 
You should remain in school until you get to the 
point where you feel that you do not know any- 
thing, where you feel that you are willing to learn 
from any one who can teach you. 

Unfortunately there are many things here in 
the South which tend to lead away from this 
simplicity to which I have referred. There is a 
great inclination to make things appear what 
they are not. For example: take the schools. 
There is a great tendency to call schools by names 
which do not belong to them, and which do not 
correctly represent that which in reality exists. 
You will find the habit growing more prevalent 
every year, I fear, of calling a school a university, 
or a college, or an academy, or a high-school. In 
fact we seldom hear of a plain, common, public 
or graded school. 

63 



64 CHARACTER BUILDING 

We do ourselves no good when we yield to that 
temptation. If a school is a public school, call 
it one ; but do not think that we gain anything by 
calling a little country school, with two or three 
rooms and one or two teachers, where some of the 
students are studying the alphabet, a university. 
And still this is too oft.n done throughout 
the South, as you know. No respect or confi- 
dence is gained by the practice, but, on the con- 
trary, sensible people get disgusted with such 
false pretences. When you go out into the world 
and meet with such cases as this, try to make the 
people see that it is a great deal better to call 
their small public school by a name which truly 
represents it, than to call it a high-school or an 
academy. I do not by any means intend to say 
that schools do not have the right to aspire to 
become high-schools and colleges. What I mean 
to say is that it is hurtful to the race to get into 
the habit of calling every little institution of 
learning that is opened, a college or a university. 
It weakens us and prevents us from getting a 
solid, sure foundation. 

Again, we make the same mistake when we 
call every preacher or person who stands in a 
pulpit to read from it, " Doctor, " whether or not 



RIGHT NAMES 65 

that degree has been conferred upon him. Sen- 
sible people get tired of that kind of thing. The 
degree of Doctor of Divinity was once held in the 
highest esteem, and was conferred only upon 
those ministers who had really become entitled 
to it because of some original research or other 
work of high scholarship. Among highly edu- 
cated people this rule holds still. But to-day, 
especially in the South, many a little institution 
that opens its doors and calls itself a college or a 
university, is beginning to confer degrees, and 
make doctors of divinity of, persons who are 
unworthy of degees. And sometimes, should 
these persons fail to get an institution to confer 
a degree on them, they confer it on themselves ! 
The habit is getting to be so common that 
in little towns the ministers are calling them- 
selves Doctors. One pastor will meet another 
and say, "Good morning, Doctor," and the 
other, wishing to be as polite as his friend, 
will say, "How are you, Doctor?" and so it goes 
on, until both begin to believe they really are 
Doctors. Now this practice is not only ridicu- 
lous, but it is very hurtful to us as a race, and it 
should be discouraged. 

Much the same criticism may be made of many 



66 CHARACTER BUILDING 

of those who teach. A person who teaches a 
little country school, perhaps in a brush arbour, 
is called " Professor. " Every person who leads a 
string band is called " Professor." I was in 
a small town not long ago, and I heard the 
people speaking of some one as "the profes- 
sor." I was anxious to know who the pro- 
fessor was. So I waited a few minutes, and 
finally the professor came up, and I recog- 
nized him as a member of one of our pre- 
paratory classes. Now, don't suffer the world 
to put you in this silly, ridiculous position. If 
people attempt to call you "Professor," or by 
any other title that is not yours, tell them that 
you are not a professor, that you are a simple 
mister. That is a good enough title for any one. 
We have the same right to become professors as 
any other people, when we occupy positions which 
entitle us to that name, but we drag that title, 
which ought to be a badge of scholarship, down 
into the mud and mire when we allow it to be 
misapplied 

We carry a similar kind of deception into our 
school work when, in the essays whch we read 
and the orations which we deliver, we simply 
rehearse matter a great deal of which has been 



RIGHT NAMES 67 

copied from some one else. Go into almost any- 
church where there is one of the doctors of divinity 
to whom I have referred, and you will hear ser- 
mons copied out of books and pamphlets. The 
essays, the orations, the sermons that are not 
the productions of the people who pretend to 
write them, all come from this false foundation. 

Then there is another error to which I wish to 
call your attention. In many parts of the South, 
especially in the cities and towns, there are ex- 
cellent public schools, well equipped in every way 
with apparatus and material, and provided with 
good, competent teachers, but in some cases 
these schools are crippled by reason of the fact 
that there are little denominational schools which 
deprive the public schools of their rightful at- 
tendance. If the school can't be in the crmrch of 
some particular denomination, it must be near it. 
In the average town there may be the denomina- 
tional school of the African Methodist Episcopal 
church, of the Zion church, of the Baptist church, 
of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and so on, all in 
different parts of the town. Instead of support- 
ing one public school, provided at the expense 
of the town or city, there exists this little, narrow 
denominational spirit, which is robbing these 



68 CHARACTER BUILDING 

innocent children of their education. We want 
to say to such people as these, people who are 
content so to deprive their children, and have 
them taught by some second-rate teacher, that 
they are wrong. We want you to let the people 
know that the great public-school system of 
America is the nation's greatest glory, and that 
we do not help matters when we attempt to tear 
down the public school. Of course it is the right 
and the duty of every denomination to erect its 
own theological seminaries and its colleges, where 
the special tenets of that denomination are taught 
to those who are preparing for its pulpit ; but no 
one has a right to let this denominational spirit 
defeat the work of a public school to which all 
should be free to go. 

I have in mind a place where the coloured 
people have an excellent school, equal to that of 
the whites. I went through the building and 
found it supplied with improved apparatus and 
capable teachers, and saw that first-class work 
was done there. Later, I was taken about a 
mile outside the city, where there was a school 
with an incapable teacher, and some sixty or 
seventy pupils being poorly taught. Here was a 
third-rate teacher in a third-rate building, poor 



RIGHT NAMES 69 

work, and the children suffering for lack of proper 
instruction. Why? Simply because the people 
wanted a school of their own denomination in 
that part of the city. 

Now you want to cultivate courage, and see to 
it that you are brave enough to condemn these 
wrongs and to show the people the mistakes 
which they make in these matters. 

I mention all these things because they hinder 
us from getting a solid foundation. They hinder 
us, further, in that in many cases they prevent 
us from getting the right power of leadership in 
teaching, in the work of the ministry, and in 
many other respects. Wherever you go, then, 
make up your minds that you are going to make 
your influence felt in favour of better prepared 
teachers and preachers — in better preparation of 
all those who stand for leaders of the people. 
Just in proportion as you set your lives right in 
this matter, will the masses of the race be in- 
clined to follow you. 



EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS 

Some people here in America think that some 
of us make too much ado over the matter of in- 
dustrial training for the Negro. I wish some of 
the skeptics might go to Europe and see what 
races that are years ahead of us are doing there 
in that respect. I shall not take the time here 
to outline what is being done for men in the direc- 
tion of industrial training in Europe, but I shall 
give some account of what I saw being done for 
women in England. 

Mrs. Washington and I visited the Agricultural 
College for women, at Swanley, England, where 
we found forty intelligent, cultivated women, who 
were most of them graduates from high schools 
and colleges, engaged in studying practical agri- 
culture, horticulture, dairying and poultry raising. 
We found the women in the laboratory and class- 
rooms, studying agricultural chemistry, botany, 
zoology, and applied mathematics, and we also 
saw these same women in the garden, planting 
vegetables, trimming rose bushes, scattering 

7i 



72 CHARACTER BUILDING 

manure, growing grapes and raising fruit in the 
hot-houses and in the field. 

< As another suggestion for our people, I might 
mention that while I was in England I knew of 
one of the leading members of Parliament leaving 
his duties in that body for three days to preside 
at a meeting of the National Association of Poul- 
try Raisers, which was largely attended by people 
from all parts of the United Kingdom. 

In the trip which Mrs. Washington and I made 
through Holland, we saw much which may be 
of interest to you. It has been said that, God 
made the world, but the Dutch made Holland. 
For one to fully realize the force of this one must 
see Holland for himself. One of the best ways 
to see the interior of Holland, and the peasant 
life, is to take a trip, as we did, on one of the canal 
boats plying between Antwerp, in Belgium, and 
Rotterdam, in Holland. 

It was especially interesting for me to compare 
the rural life in Holland with the life of the coun- 
try coloured people in the South. Holland has 
been made what it is very largely by the unique 
system of dykes or levees which have been built 
there to keep out the water of the ocean, and thus 
enable the people to use to advantage all the land 
there is in that small country. 



EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS 73 

The great lesson which our coloured farmers 
can learn from the Dutch, is how to make a living 
from a small plot of ground well cultivated, in- 
stead of from forty or fifty acres poorly tilled. 
I have seen a whole family making a comfortable 
living by cultivating two acres of land there, 
while our Southern farmers, in too many cases, 
try to till fifty or a hundred acres, and find them- 
selves in debt at the end of the year. In all Hol- 
land, I do not think one can find a hundred acres 
of waste land ; every foot of land is covered with 
grass, vegetables, grain or fruit trees. Another 
advantage which our Southern farmers might 
have in trying to pattern after the farmers of 
Holland, would be that they would not be obliged 
to go to so much additional expense for horse or 
mule power. Most of the cultivating of the soil 
there is done with a hoe and spade. 

I saw the people of Holland on Sunday and on 
week days, but I did not see a single Dutch man, 
woman or child in rags. There were practically 
no beggars and no very poor people. They owe 
their prosperity, too, very largely to their thorough 
and intelligent cultivation of the soil. 

Next to the thorough tilling of the soil, the thing 
of most interest there, from which the coloured 



74 CHARACTER BUILDING 

people in America may learn a lesson, is the fine 
dairying which has made Holland famous through- 
out the world. Even the poorest family has its 
herd of Holstein cattle, and they are the finest 
specimens of cattle that it has ever been my pleas- 
ure to see. To watch thousands of these cattle 
grazing on the fields is worth a trip to Holland. 
As the result of the attention which they have 
given to breeding Holstein cattle, Dutch butter 
and cheese are in demand all through Europe. 
The most ordinary farmer there has a cash income 
as the result of the sale of his butter and milk. 

Many of these people make more out of the wind 
that blows over the fields than our poor Southern 
people make out of the soil. The old-fashioned 
windmill is to be seen on every farm. This mill 
not only pumps the water for the live stock, but, 
in many cases, is made to operate the dairy, to 
saw the wood, to grind the grain, and to run the 
heavy machinery. These people are, however, 
not unlike our Southern people in one respect, 
and that is in having their women and children 
work in the fields. This, I think, is done in a 
larger measure even than in the South among the 
coloured people. 

An element of strength in the fanning and dairy. 



EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS 75 

ing interests of these people is to be found in the 
fact that many of the farmers have received a 
college or university training. After this they 
take a special course in agriculture and dairying. 
This is as it should be. Our people in the South 
will prosper in proportion as a larger number of 
university men take up agriculture and kindred 
callings after they have finished their academic 
education. 

In the matter of physical appearance, including 
grace, beauty, and carriage of the body, I think our 
own people are far ahead of the Dutch. But the 
Dutch are a hardy, rugged, industrious race of 
people. In our trip in the canal boat we saw the 
men at the landings in large numbers, in their 
wooden shoes, and the women and children in 
their beautiful, old-fashioned head-dresses, each 
community having its own style of head-dress, 
which has been handed down from one generation 
to another. 

We were in Rotterdam over Sunday. The free 
and rather boisterous commingling of the sexes 
on the street was noteworthy. In this, also, our 
people in the United States could set an example 
to the Dutch. 

The foundation of the civilization of these peo- 



76 CHARACTER BUILDING 

pie is in their regard for and respect for the law, 
and their observance of it. This is the great les- 
son which the entire South must learn before it 
can hope to receive the respect and confidence of 
the world. Europeans do not understand how 
the South can disregard its own laws as it so often 
does. If you ask any man on that side of the 
Atlantic why he does not emigrate to the South- 
ern part of the United States, he shrugs his should- 
ders and says, " No law; they kill. " I pray God 
that no part of our country may much longer 
have such a reputation as that in any part of the 
world. 

From Holland we went to Paris. On a beauti- 
ful, sunny day, if you could combine the whirl of 
fashion and gaiety of New York City, Boston 
and Chicago on a prominent avenue, you would 
have some idea of what is to be seen in Paris upon 
one of her popular boulevards. Fashion seemed 
to sway everything in that great city ; for example, 
when I went into a shoe store to purchase a pair 
of shoes, I could not find a pair large enough to be 
comfortable. I was gently told that it was not 
the fashion to wear large shoes there. 

One of the things I had in mind when I went to 
France was to visit the tomb of Toussaint L'Ou- 



EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS 77 

verture, but I learned from some Haitian gentle- 
men residing in Paris that the grave of that gen- 
eral was in the northern part of France, and 
these same gentlemen informed me that his burial 
place is still without a monument of any kind. 
It seems that it has been in the minds of the 
Haitians for some time to remove his body to 
Haiti, but thus far it has been neglected. The 
Haitian Government and people owe it to them- 
selves, it appears to me, to see to it that the rest- 
ing place of this great hero is given a proper 
memorial, either in France or on the island of Haiti. 
Speaking of the Haitians, there are a good many 
well educated and cultivated men and women of 
that nationality in Paris. Numbers of them are 
sent there each year for education, and they take 
high rank in scholarship. It is greatly to be re- 
gretted, however, that some of these do not take 
advantage of the excellent training which is given 
there in the colleges of physical science, agri- 
culture, mechanics and domestic science. They 
would then be in a position to return home and 
assist in developing the agricultural and mineral 
resources of their native land. Haiti will never 
be what it should be until a large number of the 
natives receive an education which will enable 



78 CHARACTER BUILDING 

them to develop agriculture, build roads, start 
manufactories, build railroads and bridges, and 
thus keep on the island the large amount of money 
which is now being sent outside for productions 
which these people themselves could supply. 

In all the European cities which we visited, we 
compared the conduct of the rank and file of the 
people on the streets and in other places with that 
of our own people in the United States, and we 
have no hesitation in saying that, in all that marks 
a lady or gentleman, our people in the South do 
not suffer at all by the comparison. Even at the 
camp-meetings and other holiday gatherings in 
the South, the deportment of the masses of the 
coloured people is quite up to the standard of that 
of the average European in the larger cities which 
we saw. 

I should strongly advise our people against go- 
ing to Europe, and especially to Paris, with the 
hope of securing employment, unless fortified by 
strong friends and a good supply of money. In 
one week, in Paris, three men of my race called to 
see me, and in each case I found the man to be 
practically in a starving condition. They were 
well-meaning, industrious men, who had gone there 
with the idea that life was easy and work sure; 



EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS 79 

but notwithstanding the fact that they walked 
the streets for days, they could get no work. The 
fact that they did not speak the language, nor 
understand the customs of the people, made their 
life just so much the harder. With the assistance 
of other Americans, I secured passage for one of 
these men to America. His parting word to me 
was, " The United States is good enough for me in 
the future.' ' 



THE VALUE OF SYSTEM IN HOME LIFE 

Most of you are going out from Tuskegee 
sooner or later to exert your influence in the home 
life of our people. You are going to have influence 
in homes of your own, you are going to have in- 
fluence in the homes of your mothers and fathers, 
or in the homes of your relatives. You are going 
to exert an influence for good or for evil in the 
homes wherever you may go. Now the question 
how to bring about the greatest amount of happi- 
ness in these homes is one that should concern 
every student here. I say this because I want 
you to realize that each one of you is to go out 
from here to exert an influence. You are to ex- 
ercise this influence in the communities where you 
go; and if you fail to exercise it for the good of 
other individuals, you have failed to accomplish 
the purpose for which this institution exists. 

In the first place you want to exert your in- 
fluence in those directions that will bring about 
the best results ; among these it is important that 
the people have presented to them the highest 
forms of home life. 

81 



Sk/Lrf 



82 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Very often I find it true — and especially the 
more I travel about among our people — that 
many persons have the idea that they cannot 
have comfortable homes unless they have a great 
amount of money. Now some of the happiest 
and most comfortable homes I have ever been in 
have been homes where the people have but little 
money; in fact, they might well be called poor 
people. But in these homes there was a certain 
degree of order and convenience which made you 
feel as comfortable as if you were in the homes 
of people of great wealth. 

I want to speak plainly. In the first place there 
must be promptness in connection with every- 
thing in the life of the home. Take the matter 
of the meals, for instance. It is impossible for a 
home to be properly conducted unless there is a 
certain time for each meal, and promptness must 
be insisted on. In some homes the breakfast may 
be eaten at six o'clock one morning, at eight o'clock 
the next morning, and, perhaps, at nine o'clock 
the morning after that. Dinner may be served 
at twelve, one, or two o'clock, and supper may 
be eaten at five, six or seven; and even then 
one-half the members of the family be absent 
Tyhen the meal is served. There is useless waste 



SYSTEM IN HOME LIFE 83 

of time and energy in this, and an unnecessary 
amount of worry. It saves time, and it saves 
a great amount of worry, to have it understood 
that there is to be a certain time for each meal, 
and that all the members of the family are to be 
present at that time. In this way the family will 
get rid of a great deal of annoyance, and precious 
time will be saved to be used in reading or in 
some other useful occupation. 

Then as to the matter of system. No matter 
how cheap your homes are, no matter how pov- 
erty-stricken you may be in regard to money, it 
is possible for each home to have its affairs 
properly systematized. I wonder how many 
housekeepers can go into their homes on the 
darkest night there is, and put their hands on the 
box of matches without difficulty. That is one 
way to test a good housekeeper. If she cannot 
do this, then there is a waste of time. It saves 
time and it saves worry, too, if you have a certain 
place in which the matches are to be kept, and if 
you teach all the members of the family that the 
matches are always to be kept in that place. 
Oftentimes you find the match box on the table, 
or on a shelf in the corner of the room, or perhaps 
on the floor; sometimes here, sometimes there. 



84 CHARACTER BUILDING 

In many homes five or ten minutes are wasted 
every day just on account of the negligence of 
the housekeeper or the wife in this little matter. 

Then as to the matter of the dish cloth. You 
should have a place for your dish cloth, and put 
it there every day. The persons who do not have 
a place for an article are the persons who are 
found looking in-doors and out-of-doors for it, 
from five to ten minutes every time that article 
is needed. They will be saying, ''Johnnie, " or 
" Jennie, where is it? Where did you put it the 
last time you had it?" and all that kind of thing. 

The same thing is true of the broom. In the 
first place, in the home where there is system, 
you do not find the broom left standing on the 
wrong end. I hope all of you know which the 
right end of the broom is in this respect. You 
do not find the broom on the wrong end, and you 
always find that there is a certain place for it, 
and that it is kept there. When things are out 
of place and you have to hunt for them, you are 
spending not only time, but you are spending 
strength that should be used in some more profit- 
able way. There should be a place for the coat 
and the cloak, for the hat, and, in fact, a place 
for everything in the house. 



SYSTEM IN HOME LIFE 85 

The people who have a place for everything 
are the people who will find time to read, and who 
will have time for recreation. You wonder 
sometimes how the people in New England can 
afford to have so much time for reading books 
and newspapers, and still have sufficient money 
to send as much as they do here to this institute 
to be used in our education. These people find 
time to keep themselves thus intelligent, and to 
keep themselves in touch with all that takes place 
in the world, because everything is so well sys- 
tematized about their homes that they save the 
time which you and I spend in worrying about 
something which we should know all about. 

I have very rarely gone into a boarding house 
kept by our people and found the lamp in its 
proper place. When you go into such a house 
it is too apt to be the case that the people there 
will have to look for the lamp; then, when they 
have found it, it is not filled ; somebody forgot to 
put the oil in it in the morning; then they have 
to go and hunt up a wick, and then they must 
get a chimney. Then, when they get all these 
things, they must hunt for the matches to light 
the lamp. 

I wonder how many girls there are here now 



86 CHARACTER BUILDING 

who can go into a room and arrange it properly 
for an individual to sleep in — that is, provide 
the proper number of towels, the soap and matches, 
and have everything that should be provided for 
the comfort of the person who is to use the room, 
put in the room and put in its proper place. I 
should be afraid to test some of you. You must 
learn to be able to do such things before you leave 
here, in order that you may be of some use to 
yourself and to others. If you are not able to 
do this, you will be a disappointment to us. 



WHAT WILL PAY 

I wish to talk with you for a few minutes upon 
a subject that is much discussed, especially 
by young people — What things pay in life? 
There is no question, perhaps, which is asked 
oftener by a person entering upon a career than 
this — What will pay ? Will this course of action, 
or that, pay ? Will it pay to enter into this busi- 
ness or that business ? What will pay ? 

Let us see if we can answer that question, a 
question which every student in this school should 
ask himself or herself. What will profit me most ? 
What will make my life most useful ? What will 
bring about the greatest degree of happiness? 
What will pay best? 

Not long ago a certain minister secured the tes- 
timony of forty men who had been successful 
in business, persons who beyond question had 
been pronounced to be business men of authority. 
The question which this minister put to these 
business men was, whether under any circum- 
stances it paid to be dishonest in business ; whether 

87 



88 CHARACTER BUILDING 

they had found, in all their business career, that 
under any circumstances it paid to cheat, swindle 
or take advantage of their fellow-men, or in any 
way to deceive those with whom they came in 
contact. Every one of the forty answered, with- 
out hesitation, that nothing short of downright 
honesty and fair dealing ever paid in any business. 
They said that no one could succeed permanently 
in business who was not honest in dealing with 
his fellow-men, to say nothing of the future life 
or of doing right for right's sake. 

It does not pay an individual to do anything 
except what his conscience will approve of every 
day, and every hour and minute in the day. 

I want you to put that question to yourselves 
to-night: ask yourselves what course of action will 
pay. 

You may be tempted to go astray in the matter 
of money. Think, when you are tempted to do 
that: "Will it pay?" Persons who are likely 
to go astray in the matter of money, furthermore 
are likely to do so in the matter of dress, in tam- 
pering with each other's property, in the matter 
of acting dishonestly with each other's books. 
Such persons will be dishonest in the matter of 
labour, too. 



WHAT WILL PAY 89 

It pays an individual to be honest with another 
person's money. It never pays to be dishonest 
in taking another person's clothes or books. None 
of these things ever pays, and when you have oc- 
casion to yield or not to yield to such a temptation, 
you should ask yourself the question : ' ' Will it pay 
me to do this ? ' ' Put that question constantly to 
yourself. 

Whenever you promise, moreover, to do a piece 
of work for a man, there is a contract binding 
you to do an honest day's labour — and the man 
to pay you for an honest day's labour. If you fail 
to give such service, if you break that contract, 
you will find that such a course of action never 
pays. It will never pay you to deal dishonestly 
with an individual, or to permit dishonest dealing. 
If you fail to give a full honest day's work, if 
you know that you have done only three-quarters 
of a day's work, or four-fifths, it may seem to you 
at the time that it has paid, but in the long run 
you lose by it. 

I regret to say that we sometimes have occa- 
sion to meet students here who are inclined to be 
dishonest. Such students come to Mr. Palmer or 
to me, and say they wish to go home. When 
they are asked why they wish to go home, some 



go CHARACTER BUILDING 

of them say they wish to go because they are sick. 
Then, when they have been talked with a few 
minutes, they may say that they do not like the 
food here, or perhaps that some disappointment 
has befallen their parents. In some cases I have 
had students give me half a dozen excuses in little 
more than the same number of minutes. 

The proper thing for students to do, when they 
wish to go home, is to state the exact reason, and 
then stick to it. The student who does that is 
the kind that will succeed in the world. The stu- 
dents who are downright dishonest in what they 
say, will find out that they are not strong in any- 
thing, that they are not what they ought to be. 
The time will come when that sort of thing will 
carry them down instead of up. 

In a certain year — I think it was r857 — there 
was a great financial panic in the United States, 
especially in the city of New York. A great 
many of the principal banks in the country failed, 
and others were in daily danger of failure. I re- 
member a story that was told of one of the bank 
presidents of that time, William Taylor, I believe. 
All the bank presidents in the city of New York 
were having meetings every night to find out how 
well they were succeeding in keeping their insti- 






WHAT WILL PAY? 91 

tutions solvent. At one of these meetings, after 
a critical day in the most trying period of the 
panic, when some men reported that they had 
lost money during that day, and others that so 
much money had been withdrawn from their 
banks during the day that if there were another 
like it they did not see how they could stand the 
strain, William Taylor reported that money had 
been added to the deposits of his bank that day 
instead of being withdrawn. 

What was behind all this? William Taylor 
had learned in early life that it did not pay to be 
dishonest, but that it paid to be honest with all 
his depositors and with all persons who did busi- 
ness with his bank. When other people were 
failing in all parts of the country, the evidence of 
this man's character, his regard for truth and 
honest dealing, caused money to come into his 
bank when it was being withdrawn from others. 

Character is a power. If you want to be power- 
ful in the world, if you want to be strong, influen- 
tial and useful, you can be so in no better way 
than by having strong character ; but you cannot 
have a strong character if you yield to the temp- 
tations about which I have been speaking. 

Some one asked, some time ago, what it was 



92 CHARACTER BUILDING 

that gave such a power to the sermons of the late 
Dr. John Hall. In the usual sense he was not a 
powerful speaker; but everything he said carried 
conviction with it. The explanation was that 
the character of the man was behind the sermon. 
You may go out and make great speeches, you 
may write books or addresses which are great 
literature, but unless you have character behind 
what you say and write, it will amount to nothing ; 
it will all go to the winds. 

I leave this question with you, then. When you 
are tempted to do what your conscience tells you 
is not right, ask yourself: " Will it pay me to do 
this thing which I know is not right ? " Go to the 
penitentiary. Ask the people there who have 
failed, who have made mistakes, why they are 
there, and in every case they will tell you that they 
are there because they yielded to temptation, be- 
cause they did not ask themselves the question: 
-Will it pay?" 

Go ask those people who have no care for life, 
who have thrown away their virtue, as it were, 
ask them why they are without character, and 
the answer will be, in so many words, that they 
sought but temporary success. In order to find 
some short road to success, in order to have 



WHAT WILL PAY? 93 

momentary happiness, they yielded to temptation. 
We want to feel that in every student who goes 
out from here there is a character which can be 
depended upon in the night as well as in the day. 
That is the kind of young men and young women 
we wish to send out from here. Whenever you 
are tempted to yield a hair's breadth in the direc- 
tion which I have indicated, ask yourself the 
question over and over again : " Will it pay me in 
this world ? Will it pay me in the world to come ? ' ' 



EDUCATION THAT EDUCATES* 

Perhaps I am safe in saying that during the last 
ten days you have not given much systematic effort 
to book study in the usual sense. When inter- 
ruptions come such as we have just had, taking 
you away from your regular routine work and 
study, and the preparation of routine lessons is 
interrupted, the first thought to some may be that 
this time is lost, in so far as it relates to education 
in the ordinary sense ; that it is so much time taken 
away from that part of one's life that should be 
devoted to acquiring education. I suppose that 
during the last few days the questions have come 
to many of you: "What are we gaining? What 
are we getting from the irregularity that has 
characterized the school grounds within the last 
week, that will in any degree compensate for the 
amount of book study that we have lost ? " 

To my mind I do not believe that you have lost 
anything by the interruption. On the other 
hand, I am convinced that you have got the best 

* This talk was given soon after the visit of President 
McKinley to Tuskegee Institute in the fall of 1898. 

95 



96 CHARACTER BUILDING 

kind of education. I do not mean to say that we 
can depend upon it for all time to come for syste- 
matic training of the mind, but so far as real educa- 
tion, so far as development of the mind and heart 
and body are concerned, I do not believe that a 
single student has lost anything by the irregular- 
ity of the last week or more. 

You have gained in this respect: in preparing 
for the reception and entertainment of the Presi- 
dent of the United States and his Cabinet, and the 
distinguished persons who accompanied the party, 
you have had to do an amount of original thinking 
which you, perhaps, have never had to do before 
in your lives. You have been compelled to think ; 
you have been compelled to put more than your 
bodily strength into what you have been doing. 
You could not have made the magnificent exhibi- 
tion of our work which you have made if you had 
not been compelled to do original thinking and 
execution. Most of you never saw such an ex- 
hibition before; I never did. Those of you who 
had to construct floats that would illustrate our 
agricultural work and our mechanical and acad- 
emic work, had to put a certain amount of original 
thought into the planning of these floats, in order 
to make them show the work to the best ad van- 



EDUCATION THAT EDUCATES 97 

tage ; and two-thirds of you — yes, practically all of 
you — had never seen anything of the kind before. 
For this reason it was a matter that had to be 
thought out by you and planned out by you, and 
then put into visible shape. 

Now compare that kind of education with the 
mere committing to memory of certain rules, or 
something which some one else thought out and 
executed a thousand years ago perhaps — and that 
is what a large part of our education really is. 
Education in the usual sense of the word is the 
mere committing to memory of something which 
has been known before us. Now during the last 
ten days we have had to solve problems of our 
own, not problems and puzzles that some one else 
originated for us. I do not believe that there is a 
person connected with the institution who is not 
stronger in mind, who is not more self-confident 
and self-reliant, so far as the qualities relate to 
what he is able to do with his mind or his hands, 
than he was ten or twelve days ago. There is the 
benefit that came to all of us. It put us to think- 
ing and planning ; it brought us in to contact with 
things that are out of the ordinary ; and there is no 
education that surpasses this. I see more and 
more every year that the world is to be brought 



98 CHARACTER BUILDING 

to the study of men and of things, rather than to 
the study of mere books. You will find more 
and more as the years go by, that people will 
gradually lay aside books, and study the nature 
of man in a way they have never done as yet. I 
tell you, then, that in this interruption of the 
regular school work you have not lost anything : — 
you have gained ; you have had your minds awak- 
ened, your faculties strengthened, and your hands 
guided. 

I do not wish to speak of this matter egotistically, 
but it is true that I have heard a great many per- 
sons from elsewhere mention the pleasure which 
they have received in meeting Tuskegee students, 
because when they come in contact with a student 
who has been here, they are impressed with the 
fact that he or she does not seem to be dead or 
sleepy. They say that when they meet a Tuske- 
gee boy or girl they find a person who has had 
contact with real life. The education that you 
have been getting during the last few days, you 
will find, as the years go by, has been of a kind 
that will serve you in good stead all through your 
lives. 

Just in proportion as we learn to execute some- 
thing, to put our education into tangible'form — as 



EDUCATION THAT EDUCATES 99 

we have been doing during the last few days — in 
just the same proportion will we find ourselves of 
value as individuals and as a race. Those people 
who came here to visit us knew perfectly well that 
we could commit to memory certain lines of poetry, 
they knew we were able to solve certain problems 
in algebra and geometry, they understood that we 
could learn certain rules in chemistry and agri- 
culture; but what interested them most was to 
see us put into visible form the results of our edu- 
cation. Just in proportion as an individual is 
able to do that, he is of value to the world. That 
is the object of the work which we are trying to do 
here. We are trying to turn out men and women 
who are able to do something that the world wants 
done, that the world needs to have done. Just 
in proportion as you can comply with that de- 
mand you will find that there is a place for you — 
there is going to be standing room. By the train- 
ing we are giving you here we are preparing you 
for a place in the world. We are going to train 
you so that when you get to that place, if you fail 
in it, the failure will not be our fault. 

It is a great satisfaction to have connected with 
a race men and women who are able to do some- 

thing, not merely to talk about doing it, not 
LofC. 



ioo CHARACTER BUILDING 

merely to theorize about doing it, but actually 
to do something that makes the world better to 
live in, something that enhances the comforts and 
conveniences of life. I had a good example of 
this last week. I wanted something done in my 
office which required a practical knowledge of 
electricity. It was a great satisfaction when I 
called upon one of the teachers, to have him do the 
work m a careful, praiseworthy manner. It is 
very well to talk or lecture about electricity, but 
it is better to be able to do something of value 
with one's knowledge of electricity. 

And so, as you go on, increasing your ability to 
do things of value, you will find that the problem 
which often now-a-days looks more and more 
difficult of solution will gradually become easier. 
One of the Cabinet members who were here a few 
days ago said, after witnessing the exhibition 
which you made here, that the islands which this 
country had taken into its possession during the 
recent war are soon going to require the service 
of every man and woman we can turn out from 
this institution. You will find it true, not only 
in this country but in other countries, that the 
demand will be more and more for people who can 
do something. Just in proportion as we can, as 



EDUCATION THAT EDUCATES 101 

a race, get the reputation which I spoke to you 
about a few days ago, you will find there will be 
places for us. Regardless of colour or condition, 
the world is going to give the places of trust and 
remuneration to the men and women who can do 
a certain thing as well as anybody else or better. 
This is the whole problem. Shall we prepare our- 
selves to do something as well as anybody else or 
better ? Just in proportion as we do this, you will 
find that nothing under the sun will keep us back. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING RE- 
LIABLE. 

I am going to call your attention this evening 
to a tendency of the people of our race which I 
had occasion to notice in the course of a visit re- 
cently made to certain portions of North Carolina 
and South Carolina. 

I find that with persons who are the employers 
or who might be the employers of numbers of our 
people, there is a very general impression that as a 
race we lack steadiness — that we lack steadiness 
as labourers. Now you may say that this is not 
true, and you may cite any number of instances 
to show that we are not unreliable in that respect ; 
whether it is true or not, the results are the same ; 
— it works against us in the matter of securing 
paying employment. 

Almost without exception, in talking with per- 
sons who are in a position to employ us, or who 
have been employing us, or who are thinking of em- 
ploying us, I have found that this objection has 
been very largely in their minds, — that we cannot 

103 



io 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

be depended upon, that we are unsteady and un- 
reliable in matters of labour. I am speaking, 
of course, of that class of people of our race who 
depend mainly upon a day's work — working by 
the day, as we call it — for their living. These men 
with whom I talked gave several illustrations of 
this tendency. In the first place, I think they 
mentioned, without exception, this fact — that if 
the coloured people are employed in a factory, 
they work well and steadily for a few days, say 
until Saturday night comes, and they are paid 
their week's wages. Then they cannot be de- 
pended upon to put in an appearance the following 
Monday morning. 

That special criticism was made without ex- 
ception. The coloured people, these men said, 
would work earnestly, and give good satisfaction 
until they got a little money ahead, and got food 
enough assured to last them two or three weeks; 
then they would give up the job, or simply remain 
away from the factory until others had been put 
in their places. That was one of the statements 
that was made to me over and over again. 

People also mentioned to me as an unfavourable 
tendency the inclination which the people of our 
race have to go on excursions. They said that if 



BEING RELIABLE 105 

an excursion were going to Wilmington or Greens- 
boro, or Charleston, and the coloured people had a 
little money on hand, you could not depend on 
their going to work instead of going on the excur- 
sion ; that people would say that they must go on 
this or that excursion, and that nothing should 
stop them. A great many people lose employ- 
ment and money because of this tendency to go 
on excursions. 

Another thing that was mentioned to me was 
the Sunday dinners. Our people are too likely to 
starve all through the week, and then on Sunday 
invite all the neighbours to come in and eat up 
what they have made through the week. People 
say that we take our week's earnings on Saturday 
night, and go to the market and spend it all, and 
then invite all of our kindred and neighbours to 
come in on Sunday to have a great party. Then 
by Monday morning we have made ourselves so 
ill by overeating that we are unfit for work. This 
was given as one of the reasons which cause people 
to complain of our race for unsteadiness. 

Then there was complaint of a general lack of 
perseverance, of an unwillingness to be steady, to 
put money into the bank, to begin at the bottom 
and gradually work toward the top. You can 



io6 CHARACTER BUILDING 

easily see some of the results of such a reputation 
as this. I have noticed some of the results in 
many of the places where our people have been 
securing paying employment. One result is a 
general distrust of the entire race in matters per- 
taining to industry. Another is that people are 
not going to employ persons on whom they cannot 
depend, to fill responsible positions. Employers 
are not likely to employ for responsible positions 
persons who are likely to go away unexpectedly 
on excursions. 

Another result is loss of money. You will find 
many of our people in poverty simply because, 
in so large a measure, we have got this reputation 
of being unsteady and unreliable. Wherever 
our people are not getting regular, paying employ- 
ment, it is largely on account of these things of 
which I have been speaking; and gradually the 
opportunities for employment are slipping into 
the hands of the people of other races. You can 
easily understand that where people are not getting 
steady employment — but a job this week and a 
job next week, and perhaps nothing the week 
after — it is impossible for them to put money in 
the bank, impossible to acquire homes and prop- 
erty, and to settle down as reliable, prosperous 
citizens. 



BEING RELIABLE 107 

Now, how are we going to change all these 
things ? I do not see any hope unless we can depend 
upon you to change them, you young men and 
young women who are being educated in institu- 
tions of learning. It rests largely with you to 
change public sentiment among our people in all 
these directions, to a point where we shall feel 
that we must be as reliable and as responsible as 
it is possible for the people of any other race to be. 
But in order to do this it is necessary for you to 
learn how to control yourselves in these respects. 
Young men come here and want to work at this 
industry or that, for a while, and then get tired 
and want to change to something else. Some come 
with a strong determination to work, and stay 
until something happens that is not quite pleasant, 
and then they want to leave and go to some other 
school or go back home. Now we cannot make 
the leaders and the examples of our people that 
we should make, if we are going to be guilty of 
these same weaknesses in these institutions. Let 
each of you take control of himself or herself, 
and determine that whatever you plan to be you 
are going to be; you are going to keep driving 
away, pegging away, moving on and on each hour, 
each day, until you have accomplished the pur- 
pose for which you came here. 



io8 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Such are the persons, the men and women, that 
the world is looking for. These are the men and 
women we want to send to North Carolina and 
South Carolina, to Georgia, to Mississippi, and 
about in our own State of Alabama, to reach hun- 
dreds and thousands of our people, and to bring 
about such a sentiment that these people can con- 
trol themselves in the directions I have mentioned 
and become steady and reliable along all the 
avenues of industry. 

I have spoken very plainly about these things, 
because I believe that they are matters to which 
as a race we ought to give more attention. No 
race can thrive and prosper and grow strong if it 
is living on the outer edges of the industrial world, 
is jumping here and there after a job that some- 
body else has given up. At the risk of repeating 
myself, I say that we must give attention to this 
matter, — we must be more trustworthy and more 
reliable in matters of labour. As you go home, 
and go into your churches, your schools and your 
families, preach, teach and talk from day to day 
the doctrine that our people must become steady 
and reliable, must become worthy of confidence 
in all their occupations. 

I am sorry to say that it is too often true of 



BEING RELIABLE 109 

young people that they overlook these matters 
in their conversation. We are always ready to 
talk about Mars and Jupiter, about the sun and 
moon, and about things under the earth and over 
the earth — in fact about everything except these 
little matters that have so much to do with our 
real living. Now if we cannot put a spirit of 
determination into you to go out and change 
public sentiment, then the future for us as a race 
is not very bright. 

But I have faith in you to believe that you are 
going to set a high standard for yourselves in all 
these matters, and that if you can stay here two, 
four, five years, some of you will control your- 
selves in all those respects, and will bring your- 
selves to be examples of what we hope and expect 
the people whom you are going to teach are to 
become. If you will do this you will find that in 
a few years there will be a decided change for the 
better in the things of which I have spoken, a 
change in regard to these matters that will make 
us as a race firmer and stronger in these impor- 
tant directions. 



THE HIGHEST EDUCATION 

It may seem to some of you that I am continu- 
ally talking to you about education — the right 
kind of education, how to get an education, and 
such kindred subjects — but surely no subject 
could be more pertinent, since the object for which 
you all are here is to get an education ; and if you 
are to do this, you wish to get the best kind possi- 
ble. 

You will understand, then, I am sure, if I speak 
often about this, or refer to the subject frequently, 
that it is because I am very anxious that all of you 
go out from here with a definite and correct idea of 
what is meant by education, of what an education 
is meant to accomplish, what it may be expected 
to do for one. 

We are very apt to get the idea that education 
means the memorizing of a number of dates, of 
being able to state when a certain battle took 
place, of being able to recall with accuracy this 
event or that event. We are likely to get the 
impression that education consists in being able 

hi 



Ti 2 CHARACTER BUILDING 

to commit to memory a certain number of rules 
in grammar, a certain number of rules in arithme- 
tic, and in being able to locate correctly on the 
earth's surface this mountain or that river, and 
to name this lake and that gulf. 

Now I do not mean to disparage the value of 
this kind of training, because among the things 
that education should do for us is to give us 
strong, orderly and well developed minds. I do 
not wish to have you get the idea that I under- 
value or overlook the strengthening of the mind. 
If there is one person more than another who is to 
be pitied, it is the individual who is all heart and 
no head. You will see numbers of persons going 
through the world whose hearts are full of good 
things — running over with the wish to do some- 
thing to make somebody better, or the desire to 
make somebody happier — but they have made 
the sad mistake of being absolutely without de- 
velopment of mind to go with this willingness of 
heart. We want development of mind and we 
want strengthening of the mind. 

I have often said to you that one of the best 
things that education can do for an individual is 
to teach that individual to get hold of what he 
wants, rather than to teach him how to commit 






THE HIGHEST EDUCATION 113 

to memory a number of facts in history or a num- 
ber of names in geography. I wish you to feel 
that we can give you here orderliness of mind — I 
mean a trained mind — that will enable you to find 
dates in history or to put your finger on names 
in geography when you want them. I wish to 
give you an education that will enable you to con- 
struct rules in grammar and arithmetic for your- 
selves. That is the highest kind of training. 

But, after all, this kind of thing is not the end 
of education. What, then, do we mean by educa- 
tion ? I would say that education is meant to give 
us an idea of truth. Whatever we get out of text 
books, whatever we get out of industry, whatever 
we get here and there from any sources, if we do 
not get the idea of truth at the end, we do not get 
education. I do not care how much you get out 
of history, or geography, or algebra, or literature, 
I do not care how much you have got out of all 
your text books : — unless you have got truth, you 
have failed in your purpose to be educated. Un- 
less you get the idea of truth so pure that you- 
cannot be false in anything, your education is a 
failure. 

Then education is meant to make us just in our 
dealings with our fellow men. The man or woman 



ii 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

who has learned to be absolutely just, so far as he 
can interpret, has, in that degree, an education, 
is to that degree an educated man or woman. 
Education is meant to make us change for the 
better, to make us more thoughtful, to make us so 
broad that we will not seek to help one man be- 
cause he belongs to this race or that race of people, 
and seek to hinder another man because he does 
not belong to this race or that race of people. 

Education in the broadest and truest sense will 
make an individual seek to help all people, re- 
gardless of race, regardless of colour, regardless of 
condition. And you will find that the person who 
is most truly educated is the one who is going to 
be kindest, and is going to act in the gentlest 
manner toward persons who are unfortunate, to- 
ward the race or the individual that is most de- 
spised. The highly educated person is the one 
who is the most considerate of those individuals 
who are less fortunate. I hope that when you go 
out from here, and meet persons who are afflicted 
by poverty, whether of mind or body, or persons 
who are unfortunate in any way, that you will 
show your education by being just as kind and 
just as considerate toward those persons as it is 
possible for you to be. That is the way to test 



THE HIGHEST EDUCATION 115 

a person with education. You may see ignorant 
persons, who, perhaps, think themselves educated, 
going about the street, who, when they meet an 
individual who is unfortunate — lame, or with a 
defect of body, mind or speech — are inclined to 
laugh at and make sport of that individual. But 
the highly educated person, the one who is really 
cultivated, is gentle and sympathetic to everyone. 

Education is meant to make us absolutely 
honest in dealing with our fellows. I don't care 
how much arithmetic we have, or how many 
cities we can locate; — it all is useless unless we 
have an education that makes us absolutely 
honest. 

Education is meant to make us give satisfaction, 
and to get satisfaction out of giving it. It is 
meant to make us get happiness out of service 
for our fellows. And until we get to the point 
where we can get happiness and supreme satisfac- 
tion out of helping our fellows, we are not truly 
educated. Education is meant to make us gener- 
ous. In this connection let me say that I very 
much hope that when you go out from here you 
will show that you have learned this lesson of 
being generous in all charitable objects, in the 
support of your churches, your Sunday schools, 



n6 CHARACTER BUILDING 

your hospitals, and in being generous in giving 
help to the poor. 

I hope, for instance, that a large proportion of 
you — in fact all of you — will make it a practice 
to give something yearly to this institution. If you 
cannot give but twenty-five cents, fifty cents, or a 
dollar a year, I hope you will put it down as a thing 
that you will not forget, to give something to this 
institution every year. We want to show to our 
friends who have done so much for us, who have 
supported this school so generously, how much 
interest we take in the institution that has given 
us so nearly all that we possess. I hope that 
every senior, in particular, will keep this in mind. 
I am glad to say that we have many graduates 
who send us such sums, even if small, and one 
graduate who for the last eight or ten years has 
sent us ten ^dollars annually. I hope a number 
of you in the senior class that I see before me will 
do the same thing. 

Education is meant to make us appreciate the 
things that are beautiful in nature. A person is 
never educated until he is able to go into the 
swamps and woods and see something that is 
beautiful in the trees and shrubs there, is able 
to see something beautiful in the grass and flowers 



THE HIGHEST EDUCATION 117 

that surround him, is, in short, able to see some- 
thing beautiful, elevating and inspiring in every- 
thing that God has created. Not only should 
education enable us to see the beauty in these ob- 
jects which God has put about us, but it is meant 
to influence us to bring beautiful objects about 
us. I hope that each one of you, after you gradu- 
ate, will surround himself at home with what is 
beautiful, inspiring and elevating. I do not be- 
lieve that any person is educated so long as he lives 
in a dirty, miserable shanty. I do not believe 
that any person is educated until he has learned to 
want" to live in a clean room made attractive with 
pictures and books, and with such surround- 
ings as are elevating. 

In a word, I wish to say again, that education 
is meant to give us that culture, that refinement, 
that taste which will make us deal truthfully with 
our fellow men, and will make us see what is beau- 
tiful, elevating and inspiring in what God has 
created. I want you to bear in mind that your 
text books, with all their contents, are not an end, 
but a means to an end, a means to help us get the 
highest, the best, the purest and the most beauti- 
ful things out of life. 



UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 

Several of the things which I shall say to you 
to-night may not ' sound very agreeable or en- 
couraging to many of you, yet I think you will 
agree with me that they are facts that cannot be 
denied. 

We must recognize the fact, in the first place, 
that our condition as a race is, in a large measure, 
different from the condition of the white race by 
which we are surrounded; that our capacity is 
very largely different from that of the people 
of the white race. I know we like to say the 
opposite. It sounds well in compositions, does 
well in rhetoric, and makes a splendid essay, 
for us to make the opposite assertion. It does 
very well in a newspaper article, but when we 
come down to hard facts we must acknowledge 
that our condition and capacity are not equal to 
those of the majority of the white people with 
whom we come in daily contact. 

Of course that does not sound very well; but 
to say that we are equal to the whites is to say 
that slavery was no disadvantage to us. That is 

119 



i2o CHARACTER BUILDING 

the logic of it. To illustrate. Suppose a person 
has been confined in a sick room, deprived of the 
use of his faculties, the use of his body and senses, 
and that he comes out and is placed by the side 
of a man who has been healthy in body and mind. 
Are these two persons in the same condition? 
Are they equal in capacity ? Is the young animal 
of a week old, although he has all the character- 
istics that his mother has, as strong as she ? With 
proper development he will be, in time, as strong 
as she, but it is unreasonable to say that he is as 
strong at present. And so, I think, this is all that 
we can say of ourselves — with proper develop- 
ment our condition and capacity will be the same 
as those of the people of any other race. 

Now, the fact that our capacity as a people is 
different, and that the conditions which we must 
meet are different, makes it reasonable for us to 
believe that, when the question of education is 
considered, we shall find that different educa- 
tional methods are desirable for us from those 
which would be appropriate to the needs of a 
people whose capacity and conditions are differ- 
ent from ours. What we most need, in my opin- 
ion, for the next few generations, is such an educa- 
tion as will help us most effectually to conquer 



UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 121 

the forces of nature ; — I mean in the general sense 
of supplying food, clothing, homes, and a sub- 
stantial provision for the future. 

Do not think that I mean by this that I do not 
believe in every individual getting all the educa- 
tion, he or she can get, — for I do. But since for 
some years to come, at least, it must of necessity 
be impossible for all of our young people to get all 
the education possible, or even all they may want 
to get, I believe they should apply their energies 
to getting such a training as will be best fitted to 
supply their immediate needs. 

In Scotland, for instance, where higher educa- 
tion has been within reach of the people for many 
years, and where the people have reached a high 
degree of civilization, it is not out of place for 
the young people to give their time and attention 
to the study of metaphysics and of law and the 
other professions. Of course I do not mean to 
say that we shall not have lawyers and meta- 
physicians and other professional men after a 
while, but I do mean to say that I think the 
efforts of a large majority of us should be de- 
voted to securing the material necessities of life. 

When you speak to the average person about 
labor — industrial work, especially — he seems to 



i22 CHARACTER BUILDING 

get the idea at once that you are opposed to his 
head being educated — that you simply wish to 
put him to work. Anybody that knows anything 
about industrial education knows that it teaches 
a person just the opposite — how not to work. It 
teaches him to make water work for him, — air, 
steam, all the forces of nature. That is what is 
meant by industrial education. 

Let us make an illustration. Yesterday I was 
over in the creamery and became greatly inter- 
ested in the process of separating the cream. The 
only energy spent was that required to turn a 
crank. The apparatus had been so constructed 
as to utilize natural forces. Now compare the old 
process of butter-making with the new. Before, 
you had to go through a long process of drudgery 
before the cream could be separated from the 
milk, and then another long process before the 
cream could be turned into butter, and then, even 
after churning three or four hours at a time, you 
got only a small portion of butter. Now what we 
mean by giving you an industrial education is to 
teach you so to put brains into your work that if 
your work is butter-making, you can make butter 
simply by standing at a machine and turning a 
crank. 






UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 123 

If you are studying chemistry, be sure you get 
all you can out of the course here, and then go to 
a higher school somewhere else. Become as pro- 
ficient in the science as you can. When you haye 
done this, do not sit down and wait for the world 
to honour you because you know a great deal about 
chemistry — you will be disappointed if you do — 
but if you wish to make the best use of your knowl- 
edge of chemistry, come back here to the South 
and use it in making this poor soil rich, and in 
making good butter where the farmers have made 
poor butter before. Used in this way you will 
find that your knowledge of chemistry will cause 
others to honour you. 

During the last thirty years we, as a race, have 
let some golden opportunities slip from us, and 
partly, I fear, because we have not had enough plain 
talk in the direction I am following with you to- 
night. If you ever have an opportunity to go 
into any of the large cities of the North you will 
be able to see for yourselves what I mean. I re- 
member that the first time I went North — and it 
was not so very many years ago — it was not an 
uncommon thing to. see the barber shops in the 
hands of coloured men. I know coloured men 
who in that way could have become comfortably 



i2 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

rich. You cannot find to-day in the city of New 
York or Boston a first-class barber shop in the 
hands of coloured men. That opportunity is 
gone, and something is wrong that it is so. Com- 
ing nearer home; go to Montgomery, Memphis, 
New Orleans, and you will find that the barber 
shops are gradually slipping away from the hands 
of the coloured men, and they are going back into 
dark streets and opening little holes. These op- 
portunities have slipped from us largely because 
we have not learned to dignify labour. The 
coloured man puts a dirty little chair and a pair 
of razors into a dirtier looking hole, while the 
white man opens his shop on one of the principal 
streets, or in connection with some fashionable 
hotel, fits it up luxuriously with carpets, hand- 
some mirrors and other attractive furniture, and 
calls the place a "tonsorial parlour." The pro- 
prietor sits at his desk and takes the cash. He 
has transformed what we call drudgery into a 
paying business. 

Still another instance. You can remember 
that only a few years ago one of the best paying 
positions that a large number of coloured men 
filled was that of doing whitewashing. A few 
years ago it would not have been hard to see 



UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 125 

coloured men in Boston, Philadelphia or Wash- 
ington carrying a whitewash tub and a long pole 
into somebody's house to do a job of whitewash- 
ing. You go into the North to-day, and you will 
find very few coloured men at that work. White 
men learned that they could dignify that branch 
of labour, and they began to study it in schools. 
They gained a knowledge of chemistry which 
would enable them to understand the mixing of 
the necessary ingredients ; they learned decorating 
and frescoing; and now they call themselves 
"house decorators." Now that job is gone, per- 
haps to come no more; for now that these men 
have elevated this work, and introduced more in- 
telligent skill into it, do you suppose any one is 
going to allow some old man with a pole and a 
bucket to come into the house ? 

Then there is the field occupied by the cooks. 
You know that all over the South we have held — 
and still hold to a large extent — the matter of 
cooking in our hands. Wherever there was any 
cooking to be done, a coloured man or a coloured 
woman did it. But while we still have something 
of a monopoly of this work, it is a fact that even 
this is slipping away from us. People do not 
wish always to eat fried meat, and bread that is 



126 CHARACTER BUILDING 

made almost wholly of water and salt. They get 
tired of such food, and they desire a person to 
cook for them who will put brains into the work. 
To met this demand white people have trans- 
formed what was once the menial occupation of 
cooking into a profession; they have gone to 
school and studied how to elevate this work, and 
if we can judge by the almost total absence of 
coloured cooks in the North, we are led to believe 
that they have learned how. Even here in the 
South coloured cooks are gradually disappearing, 
and unless they exert themselves they will go en- 
tirely. They have disappeared in the North be- 
cause they have not kept pace with the demand 
for the most improved methods of cooking, and 
because they have not realized that the world is 
moving forward rapidly in the march of civiliza- 
tion. A few days ago, when in Chicago, I noticed 
in one of the fashionable restaurants a fine-look- 
ing man, well dressed, who seemed to be the pro- 
prietor. I asked who he was, and was told that 
he was the " chef, " as he is called — the head cook. 
Of course I was surprised to see a man dressed so 
stylishly and presenting such an air of culture, 
filling the place of chief cook in a restaurant, but 
I remembered then, more forcibly than ever, that 









UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 127 

cooking had been transformed into a profession — 
into dignified labour. 

Still another opportunity is going, and we 
laugh when we mention it, although it is really no 
laughing matter. When we think of what we 
might have done to elevate it in the same way 
that white persons have elevated it, we realize 
that it was an opportunity after all. I refer 
to the opportunity which was in boot-blacking. 
Of course, here in the South, we have that yet, to 
a large extent, because the competition here is not 
quite so sharp as in the North. In too many 
Southern towns and cities, if you wish your shoes 
blacked, you wait until you meet a boy with a 
box slung over his shoulder. When he begins to 
polish your shoes you will very likely see that he 
uses a much-worn shoe brush, or, worse still, a 
scrubbing brush, and unless you watch him closely 
there is a chance that he will polish your shoes 
with stove polish. But if you go into a Northern 
city you will find that such a boy as this does not 
stand a chance of making a living. White boys 
and even men have opened shops which they 
have fitted up with carpets, pictures, mirrors, 
and comfortable chairs, and sometimes their 
brushes are even run by electricity. They have 



i28 CHARACTER BUILDING 

the latest newspapers always within reach for their 
patrons to read while their work is being done, 
and they grow rich. The man who owns and 
runs such a place as that is not called a ''boot- 
black"; he is called the proprietor of such and 
such a "Shoe-blacking Emporium." And that 
chance is gone to come no more. Now there are 
many coloured men who understand about elec- 
tricity, but where is the coloured man who would 
apply his knowledge of that science to running 
brushes in a boot-black stand? 

In the South it was a common thing when any- 
body was taken ill to notify the old mammy nurse. 
We had a monopoly of the nursing business for 
many years, and up to a short time ago it was the 
common opinion that nobody could nurse but one 
of those old black mammies. But this idea is 
being dissipated. In the North, when a person 
gets ill, he does not think of sending for any one 
but a professional nurse, one who has received 
a diploma from some nurse-training school, or a 
certificate of proficiency from some reputable in- 
stitution. 

I hope you have understood me in what I have 
been trying to say of these little things. They all 
tend to show that if we are to keep pace with the 






UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 129 

progress of civilization, we must pay attention 
to the small things as well as the larger and more 
important things in life. They go to prove that 
we must put brains into what we do. If educa- 
tion means anything at all, it means putting 
brains into the common affairs of life and making 
something of them. That is just what we are 
seeking to tell to the world through the work of 
this institution. 

There are many opportunities all about us 
where we can use our education. You very rarely 
see a man idle who knows all about house-building, 
who knows how to draw plans, to test the strength 
of materials that enter into the making of a first- 
class house. Did you ever see such a man out of 
a job? Did you ever see such a man as that 
writing letters to this place and that place apply- 
ing for work? People are wanted all over the 
world who can do work well, Men and women 
are wanted who understand the preparation and 
supplying of food — I don't mean in the small 
menial sense — but people who know all about it. 
Even in this there is a great opportunity. A few 
days ago I met a woman who had spent years in 
this country and in Europe studying the subject 
of food economics in all its details. I learn that 



i 3 o CHARACTER BUILDING 

this person is in constant demand by institutions 
of learning and other establishments where the 
preparation and the serving of food are important 
features. She spends a few months at each in- 
stitution. She is wanted everywhere, because 
she has applied her education to one of the most 
important necessities of life. 

And so you will find it all through life — those 
persons who are going to be constantly sought 
after, constantly in demand, are those who make 
the best use of their opportunities, who work un- 
ceasingly to become proficient in whatever they 
attempt to do. Always be sure that you have 
something out of which you can make a living, 
and then you will not only be independent, but 
you will be in a much better position to help your 
fellow-men. 

I have spoken about these matters at this length 
because I believe them to be the foundation of 
our future success. We often hear a man spoken 
of as having moral character. A man cannot 
have moral character unless he has something to 
wear, and something to eat three hundred and 
sixty-five days in a year. He cannot have any 
religion either. You will find at the bottom of 
much crime the fact that the criminals have not 



UNIMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 131 

had the common necessities of life supplied them. 
Men must have some of the comforts and con- 
veniences — certainly the necessities of life — sup- 
plied them before they can be morally or relig- 
iously what they ought to be. 



KEEPING YOUR WORD. 

I do not want to speak to you continually upon 
subjects that tend to show up the weaker traits 
of character which our race has, but there are 
some characteristic points in our life so important 
that it seems to me well that we emphasize those 
which are specially weak just now. 

A few weeks ago I mentioned two or three ex- 
amples which had come under my own personal 
observation, of the unreliability of the race, and 
to those I now add one or two more. 

On three distinct occasions, while travelling, I 
have found it necessary to make engagements 
with hackmen to call at a certain hour in the 
morning to take me to an early train, and on no 
one of these occasions has the hackman kept his 
word. In the first case the man disappointed 
me entirely, so that I had to walk to the station, 
a distance of a mile or more. In the second in- 
stance the hackman was to come at six o'clock, 
and did not come until half-past six. By that 
time I had started to walk, and had gone two or 

133 



i 3 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

three squares, meeting him on the way to the 
place where I had stopped. In the third case the 
man was at least an hour late when we met him, 
after we had walked over half the distance to 
the station. 

I have spoken at another time of the fact that 
men who employ coloured workmen have com- 
plained to me that after these men had drawn a 
week's pay, they could not be depended upon to 
return to work the next Monday morning. In 
the city of Savannah, Georgia, there are a great 
many coloured men employed as stevedores — 
men who load and unload ships. If you have read 
the newspapers carefully you will have noticed 
that recently the persons who employ these men 
have made a new rule, by which they refuse to 
pay the stevedores all of their wages at the end of 
the week, but retain two days' pay out of each 
week, from every individual who works for them, 
to be paid to them at the end of the next week. 
Of course the men do not lose anything in the end 
by this method; it simply means that so long as 
they work for one employer there are at least two 
days' pay due them. Of course the labourers 
whose wages were thus kept back have made a 
great noise about it, but when their employers 



KEEPING YOUR WORD 135 

were asked for an explanation, they said: "We 
find by experience that if we pay you all that we 
owe you on Saturday night, we cannot depend 
upon your returning on Monday morning to con- 
tinue your work. You are apt to get drunk, or to 
debauch yourselves on Sunday so that you are un- 
fitted for your work the next day." This is the 
decision these men have arrived at after having 
employed these men for a number of years. 

Now think of the things I have spoken to you 
about. You may say with regard to the last, 
that to a great extent this action on the part 
of the Savannah employers was due to prejudice, 
to a desire to use the money withheld for their 
own selfish purposes, and because they had the 
power to do so, but you can very easily under- 
stand that if a person goes on being disappointed 
month after month in his business, he will soon 
conclude that it is best for him to try a hackman 
of some other colour and disposition, and that 
if these Savannah employers find year after year 
that they cannot depend on coloured men to give 
them thorough, regular, systematic labour, they 
are going to look out for persons of another race 
who will do their work properly. 

It is not necessary for me to continue in this 



136 CHARACTER BUILDING 

strain, and to call attention to other incidents of 
this kind, to show, as I have told you before, that 
one of the weak points which we as a race must 
fight against, is that of not being reliable. Of 
course I understand that it is not always possible 
for a person to keep an engagement, but if he 
cannot, it is very rarely the case that he cannot 
send word to the person with whom he has made 
the engagement of his inability to keep his part 
of it. In the case of the hackmen who disap- 
pointed me, if they had sent word two or three 
hours ahead of the time, that they could not come, 
or if they had sent another hackman to fill the 
engagement for them, I should have thought 
nothing about it. In the case of those Savannah 
labourers, when they found they could not go 
back to their work promptly, if they had sent word 
to #iat effect, their absence, perhaps, could have 
been excused. But it is this habit of disappointing 
people in business matters without apparent care 
or concern that has given the race the damaging 
reputation which it has for unreliability. 

I speak of these things repeatedly and so plainly 
because I am constantly meeting persons who are 
employers or who would be employers of our 
people, and they tell me every time when I speak 



KEEPING YOUR WORD 137 

to them about work, that their only objection to 
employing coloured labour is this very matter I 
have been speaking of, its unreliability. Many 
of them say that they want to employ coloured 
people, would be glad to give them places of re- 
sponsibility, but that they cannot find men who 
will stick to their work. 

You may say that it is impossible for us to grow 
and develop, to get positions of trust and responsi- 
bility that will pay good wages, simply because 
we are coloured. I will give you an example on 
this very point. A few days ago I was in New 
Orleans, visiting a large sugar refinery. The firm 
which operates this refinery employs from two 
hundred to three hundred men. I found the 
young man who has charge of all the bookkeeping 
of the firm, through whose hands all the business 
and cash of the firm pass — I found this man to be 
coloured, and that all the other persons filling 
responsible positions under him were white. 

I remember some two or three years ago hav- 
ing met one of the partners of this firm in the White 
Mountains, and he told me at that time of this 
young man. He told me that a great many per- 
sons came to him and said: ''You ought not to 
have this coloured man filling this position when 



1 38 CHARACTER BUILDING 

there are so many white persons who want the 
place. " He told me that he said to these persons : 
"This young man does my work better than any 
one else I have yet found, and so long as he does 
this, so long shall I employ him." This gentle- 
man has since died, but the business is in the 
hands of his widow, who has so much confidence 
in the ability of this young coloured man to 
manage the affairs of a great business — Mr. Lewis 
is his name; perhaps some of you know him — 
that he is retained, practically at the head of this 
great establishment. This single instance shows 
that notwithstanding his colour a man can rise 
for what is in him ; that he can advance when he 
shows that he can be depended upon. 

Remember that whether you are hackmen, or 
business men, it pays whenever you cannot fill 
an engagement to explain beforehand why you 
cannot, and that unless you make a practice of 
doing this, it will be impossible for you to get 
ahead or to attain to places of trust and responsi- 
bility, no matter how much education you may 
have. 

As I have so often said before, if we cannot 
send out from Tuskegee and similar schools 
young men and women who can be depended 



KEEPING YOUR WORD i 39 

upon, our reputation as a race, for the years that 
are to come, is not going to be very bright. On 
the other hand, if we can succeed in sending out 
young men and women with a high sense of re- 
sponsibility, who can at all times be relied upon 
to be prompt in business matters, we shall have 
gone a long way in redeeming the character of 
the race and in lifting it up. In this important 
matter all of you can help. Do not wait until 
you go out from Tuskegee, but begin to-morrow 
morning, every boy and girl, to be reliable and to 
keep at it until reliability becomes a part of you. 



SOME LESSONS OF THE HOUR 

This evening I am going to remind you of a few 
things which you should get out of the school year, 
but it will be of very little use for me to do this 
unless you make up your minds to do two things. 

In the first place you must resolve that you are 
going to remember the things I am going to say, 
and in the second place you must put my sug- 
gestions into practice. If you will make up your 
minds, then, that you are going to hold on to these 
suggestions, so far as your memory is concerned, 
and then so far as possible put them into practice, 
we shall be able to discuss something that will be 
of profit to you during the year. 

I want you to get it firmly fixed in your minds 
that books, industries, or tools of any character, 
no matter how thoroughly you master them, do 
not within themselves constitute education. 
Committing to memory pages of written matter, 
or becoming deft in the handling of tools, is not 
the supreme thing at which education aims. 
Books, tools, and industries are but the means to 

141 



i42 CHARACTER BUILDING 

fit you for something that is higher and better. 
All these are not ends within themselves; they 
are simply means. The end of all education, 
whether of head or hand or heart, is to make an 
individual good, to make him useful, to make 
him powerful ; is to give him goodness, usefulness 
and power in order that he may exert a helpful 
influence upon his fellows. 

One of the things I want you to get out of this 
year is the ability to put a proper value upon time. 
If there is any one lesson that we all of us need 
to have impressed upon us more thoroughly and 
more constantly than any other, it is that each 
minute of our lives is of supreme value, and that 
we are committing a sin when we allow a single 
minute to go to waste. Remember that every 
five minutes of time you are spending at this in- 
stitution is worth so much money to you. How 
many people there are who, after they have ar- 
rived at the ages of sixty, seventy, or eighty years, 
look back with regret and say, "I wish I could 
live the years over again." But they cannot. 
All they can do is to regret that they have wasted 
precious minutes, precious hours. 

Now your lives are yet before you, not, as in 
the case of these people, behind you. Your lives 



\ 



SOME LESSONS OF THE HOUR 143 

are yet to be lived, and they will be made success- 
ful lives just in proportion as you learn to place 
a value upon the minutes. Spend every minute 
here in hard, earnest study, or in heipful recrea- 
tion. Be sure that none of your time is thrown 
away. 

Among other things, you should get out of the 
year the habit of reading. Any individual who 
has learned to love good books, to love the best 
newspapers, the best magazines, and has learned to 
spend some portion of the day in communication 
with them, is a happy individual. You should 
get yourselves to the point where you will not be 
happy unless you do spend a part of each day in 
this way. 

You should get out of the year the habit of 
being kind and polite to every individual. As a 
general thing it is not difficult for a person to be 
polite in words and courteous in actions to indi- 
viduals who are classed in the same social scale, or 
who, perhaps, are above him in wealth and in- 
fluence. The test of a true lady or gentleman 
comes when that individual is brought in contact 
with some one who is considered beneath her or 
him, some one who is ignorant or poor. Show me 
a man who is himself wealthy, and who is gentle 



i 4 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

and polite to the ignorant about him, and to the 
poor people about him, and I will show you every 
time a true gentleman. When Prince Henry of 
Prussia was in this country, I remember reading 
this descripion of one of the prominent public 
men who received him: "He is such a true 
gentleman that he can meet a prince without 
himself being embarrassed, and can meet a poor 
man without embarrassing the poor man. " 

Learn to speak kindly to every individual, 
white or black. No man loses anything by being 
gentlemanly, by learning to be polite, by treating 
the most unfortunate individual with the highest 
deference. 

We want you to learn to control your temper. 
Some one has said that the difference between an 
animal and a man is that the beast has no method 
of learning to control his temper. With the in- 
dividual, the human being, there is education 
and training. He learns to master himself, to 
have an even temper ; learns to master his temper 
completely. Now if any of you have a temper 
that often gets to be your master, make up your 
mind that it is a part of your duty here to learn to 
control it. Step upon it, as it were, and say: "I 
will be master of my temper, instead of letting 
it be my master. " 



SOME LESSONS OF THE HOUR 145 

You want to have that kind of courage that is 
going to make you able to speak the truth at all 
times, no matter what it may seem to cost you. 
This may, for the time being, seem to make you 
unpopular ; it may inconvenience you, it may de- 
prive you of something that you count dear; but 
the individual who cultivates that kind of courage, 
who, at the cost of everything, always speaks the 
truth, is the individual who in the end will be suc- 
cessful, is the one who in the end will come out 
the conqueror. You cannot afford to learn to 
speak anything but the absolute truth. One of 
the most beautiful things that I have seen printed 
about President Roosevelt was where someone 
wrote of him that one of the President's greatest 
faults was that he did not know when to lie — 
when to deceive people — but that he always 
spoke the absolute, frank truth. As a result of 
his honesty, his truth speaking, he is at the head 
of the nation. 

We also want you to learn to be absolutely 
honest in all your dealings with other people's 
property. We may just as well speak plainly 
and emphatically. One of our worst sins, one of 
our weaknesses, is that of not being able to handle 
other people's property and be honest with it. 



i 4 6 CHARACTER BUILDING 

You should learn to be absolutely honest with the 
property of your room-mates, school-mates and 
teachers. Make up your minds that nothing is 
going to tempt you from the path of absolute 
honesty. There is no man or woman who begins 
with meddling with other people's property and 
affairs, who begins to learn to take that which 
does not belong to him or her, who is not begin- 
ning in a downward path ending in misery, sorrow 
and disappointment. Make up your minds that 
you are going to be absolutely honest and truthful 
in all cases. There is no way to get happiness 
out of life, there is no way to get satisfaction out 
of your school career, except by following the 
lessons that I have here tried to emphasize. 

When we speak of honesty, the first thought 
may be that the word applies only to the taking 
of property that does not belong to us, but this is 
not so. It is possible for a person to be dishonest 
by taking time or energy that belongs to someone 
else, just as much as tangible property. In going 
into a class-room, office, store or shop, one man 
may ask himself the question: "How little can 
I do to-day and still get through the day?" An- 
other man will have constantly before him the 
question: "How much can I put into this hour 



SOME LESSONS OF THE HOUR 147 

or this day ? " Now we expect every student who 
goes out from Tuskegee to be, not the man who 
tries to see how little he can do, or the average 
man who proposes to do merely his duty, but the 
man above the average, who will do more than 
his duty. And you will disappoint us unless you 
are above the average man, unless you go out 
from here with the determination that you are go- 
ing to perform more than your duty, 

I like to see young men or young women 
who, if employed in any capacity, no matter how 
small or unimportant that capacity may be, if the 
hour is eight o'clock at which they must come 
to work, I like to see them at work ten or fifteen 
minutes before that hour. I like to see a man or 
woman who, if the closing hour is five o'clock or 
six o'clock, goes to the person in charge and says : 
" Shall I not stay longer ? Is there not something 
else I ought to do before I go ? " Put your whole 
souls into whatever you attempt to do. That is 
honesty. 

Another thing you should learn this year is to 
get into touch with the best people there are in 
the world. You should learn to associate with 
the best students in the institution. Take them 
as models, and say that you are going to improve 



148 CHARACTER BUILDING 

from month to month, and from year to year, 
until you are as good as they are, or better. You 
cannot reach these things all at once, but I hope 
that each one of you will make up his mind or her 
mind that from to-night, throughout the year 
and throughout life, there is going to be a hard 
striving on your part toward reaching the best 
results. If you do this, when you get ready to 
leave this institution, you will find that it has 
been worth your while to have spent your time 
here. 



THE GOSPEL OF SERVICE 

The subject on which I am going to speak to 
you for a few minutes to-night, "The Gospel of 
Service, " may not, when you first hear it, strike 
a very responsive chord in your hearts and minds, 
but I assure you I have nothing but the very 
highest and best interest of the race at heart when 
I select this subject to talk about. 

The word "service" has too often been mis- 
understood, and on this account it has in too many 
cases carried with it a meaning which indicates 
degradation. Every individual serves another 
in some capacity, or should do so. Christ said 
that he who would become the greatest of all 
must become the servant of all ; that is, He meant 
that in proportion as one renders service he be- 
comes great. The President of the United States 
is a servant of the people, because he serves them ; 
the Governor of Alabama is a servant, because he 
renders service to the people of the State; the 
greatest merchant in Montgomery is a servant, 
because he renders service to his customers; the 

149 



iSo CHARACTER BUILDING 

school teacher is a servant, because it is his duty 
to serve the best interests of his pupils ; the cook 
is a servant, because it is her duty to serve those 
for whom she works ; the housemaid is a servant, 
because it is her duty to care for the property 
intrusted to her in the best manner in which she 
is able. 

In one way or another, every individual who 
amounts to anything is a servant. The man or 
the woman who is not a servant is one who ac- 
complishes nothing. It is very often true that a 
race, like an individual, does not appreciate the 
opportunities that are spread out before it until 
those opportunities have disappeared. Before 
us, as a race in the South to-day, there is a vast 
field for service and usefulness which is still in our 
hands, but which I fear will not be ours to the 
same extent very much longer unless we change 
our ideas of service, and put new life, put new 
dignity and intelligence into it. 

Perhaps I am right in thinking that in no de- 
partment of life has there been such great progress 
and such changes for the better during the last 
ten years as in the department of domestic service, 
or housekeeping. The cook who does not make 
herself intelligent, who does not learn to do things 



THE GOSPEL OF SERVICE 151 

in the latest, and in the neatest and cleanest 
manner, will soon find herself without employ- 
ment, or will at least find herself a "drug on the 
market," instead of being sought after and paid 
higher wages. The woman who does not keep 
up with all the latest methods of decorating and 
setting her table, and of putting the food on it 
properly, will find her occupation gone within a 
few years. The same is true of general house- 
keeping, of laundering and of nursing. 

All the occupations of which I have been talk- 
ing are at present in our hands in the South ; but 
I repeat that very great progress is being made 
in all of them in every part of the world, and we 
shall find that we shall lose them unless our women 
go forward and get rid of the old idea that such 
occupations are fit only for ignorant people to 
follow. At the present time scores of books and 
magazines are appearing bearing upon every 
branch of domestic service. People are learning 
to do things in an intelligent and scientific man- 
ner. Not long ago I sat for an hour and listened 
to a lecture delivered upon the subject of dusting, 
and it was one of the most valuable hours I ever 
spent. The person who gave this lecture upon 
dusting was a highly educated and a cultivated 



152 CHARACTER BUILDING 

woman, and her audience was composed of 
wealthy and cultivated people. We must bring 
ourselves to the point where we can feel that one 
who cooks, and does it well, should be just as 
much honoured as the person who teaches school. 
What I have said in regard to the employments 
of our women is equally true of the occupations 
followed by our men. It is true that at the 
present we are largely cultivating the soil of the 
South, but if other people learn to do this work 
more intelligently, learn more about labour- 
saving machinery, and become more conscien- 
tious about their work than we, we shall find our 
occupation departing. It used to be the case 
in many parts of the North that the Negro was 
the coachman ; but in a very large degree, in cities 
like New York and Philadelphia, the Negro has 
lost this occupation, and lost it, in my opinion, 
not because he was a Negro, but because in many 
cases he did not see that the occupation of coach- 
man was constantly being improved. It has 
been improved and lifted up until now it has 
almost become a profession. The Negro who 
expects to remain a coachman should learn the 
proper dress for a coachman, and learn how to 
care for horses and vehicles in the most approved 



THE GOSPEL OF SERVICE 153 

What is true of the coachman is true of the 
butler. In too many cases, I fear, we use these 
occupations merely as stepping stones, holding 
on to them until we can find something else to 
do, in a careless and slipshod manner. We want 
to change all this, and put our whole souls into 
these occupations, and in a large degree make 
them our life-work. In proportion as we do this, 
we shall lay a foundation upon which our children 
and grandchildren are to rise to higher things. 
The foundation of every race must be laid in the 
common every-day occupations that are right 
about our doors. It should not be our thought 
to see how little we can put into our work, but 
how much ; not how quickly we can get rid of our 
tasks, but how well we can do them. 

I often wish that I had the means to put into 
every city a large training-school for giving in- 
struction in all lines of domestic service. Few 
things would add more to the fundamental use- 
fulness of the race than such a school. Perhaps 
it may be suggested that my argument has refer- 1 
ence only to our serving white people. It has 
reference to doing whatever we do in the best 
manner, no matter whom we serve. The indi- 
vidual who serves a black man poorly will serve 



i54 CHARACTER BUILDING 

a white man poorly. Let me illustrate what I 
mean. In a Southern city, a few days ago, I 
found a large hotel conducted by coloured 
people. It is one of the very cleanest and best 
and most attractive hotels for coloured people 
that I have found in any part of the country. In 
talking with the proprietors I asked them what 
was the greatest obstacle they had had to over- 
come, and they told me it was in finding coloured 
women to work in the house who would do their 
work systematically and well, women who would, 
in a word, keep the rooms in every part of the 
hotel thoroughly swept and cleaned. This hotel 
had been opened three months, and I found that 
during that time the proprietors had employed 
fifteen different chambermaids, and they had got 
rid of a large proportion of these simply because 
they were determined not to have people in 
their employment who did not do their work 
well. 

One weakness pertaining to the whole matter 
of domestic employment in the South, at present, 
is this : it is too easy for our people to find work. 
If there was a rule followed in every family that 
employs persons, that no man or woman should 
be hired unless he or she brought a letter of 



THE GOSPEL OF SERVICE 155 

recommendation from the last employer, we 
should find that the whole matter of domestic 
service would be lifted up a hundred per cent. 
So long as an individual can do poor work for one 
family, and perhaps be dishonest at the same 
time, and be sure that he or she will be employed 
by some other family, without regard to the kind 
of service rendered the last employer, so long 
will domestic service be poor and unsatisfactory. 

Many white people seldom come in contact 
with the Negro in any other capacity than that 
of domestic service. If they get a poor idea of 
our character and service in that respect, they 
will infer that the entire life of the Negro is un- 
satisfactory from every point of view. We want 
to be sure that wherever our life touches that of 
the white man, we conduct ourselves so that he 
will get the best impression possible of us. 

In spite of all the fault I have found, I would 
say this before I stop. I recognize that the people 
of no race, under similar circumstances, have made 
greater progress in thirty-five years than is true 
of the people of the Negro race. If I have spoken 
to you thus plainly and frankly, it is that our 
progress in the future may be still greater than 
it has been in the past. 









YOUR PART IN THE NEGRO CONFERENCE 

For eight or nine years, now, it has been our 
custom to hold here what is known as the Tuske- 
gee Negro Conference. A number of years ago 
it occurred to some of us that instead of confining 
the work of this institution to the immediate 
body of students gathered within its walls, we 
perhaps could extend and broaden its scope so 
as to reach out to, and try to help, the parents 
of the students and the older people in the country 
districts, and, to some extent, if possible, in the 
cities also. 

With this end in view, we, some years ago, in- 
vited a number of men and women to come and 
spend the day with us, and, while here, to tell 
us in a very plain and straightforward manner 
something about their material, moral and re- 
ligious condition. Then the afternoon of that 
same day was spent in hearing from these same 
men and women suggestions as to how they 
thought this institution and other institutions 
might help them, and also how they thought 
they might help themselves. 

157 



158 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Out of these simple and small meetings has 
grown what we now call "The Tuskegee Negro 
Conference," which, in the last few years, has 
grown until it numbers from nine hundred to 
twelve hundred persons. We not only have that 
large number of persons, most of whom come from 
farms and are engaged in farm work, but we now 
also have "The Workers' Conference," which 
meets on the day following the Negro Conference. 
This Workers' Conference brings together repre- 
sentatives from all the larger institutions for the 
education of the Negro in the South. 

Now these meetings for this year begin next 
Wednesday morning, and the practical question 
that I wish to discuss with you to-night is, — 
What can we do to make that Conference a suc- 
cess ? What can you do for the Conference, and 
what can the Conference do for you ? 

I wish you to grasp the idea that is growing 
through the country — that very few institutions 
now confine themselves and their work to mere 
teaching in the class-room, in the old-fashioned 
manner. Very few now confine themselves and 
their work to the comparatively small number 
of students that they can reach in that way, as 
they did a few years ago. In many cases they 



YOUR PART IN THE CONFERENCE 159 

have their college extension work. In one way 
or another they are reaching out and getting hold 
of the young people — and getting a hold on the 
older people as well. And just so, to a very large 
degree, through this Conference, Tuskegee is do- 
ing something of the same kind of thing. 

During these few days we shall have hundreds 
of the farmers, with their wives and daughters, 
gathered here. We want each and every one of 
you here in the institution to make up your mind 
that you can do something to help these people. 
We want each one of you here to-night to feel that 
he or she has a special responsibility during the 
time these people are gathered together at Tuske- 
gee. We sometimes speak of it as their one day 
of schooling in the whole year, — that is, the one 
day out of the whole three hundred and sixty-five 
days in the year when, perhaps, they will give the 
greatest amount of attention to matters pertain- 
ing to themselves. In inviting them here, not 
only the teachers and officers of this institution 
have a responsibility, but each and every student 
here also has a responsibility. I want you to feel 
that, and see to what extent you can take hold 
of these people while they are here, to inspire 
and encourage them, so as to have them go away 



160 CHARACTER BUILDING 

from here feeling that it is worth their while to 
come to the Institute for this meeting, even if — 
as is true of some of them — they have come a long 
distance. 

Some of these people who will come here are 
ignorant, so far as books are concerned, but I want 
you to know that not every person who cannot 
read and write is ignorant. Some of the persons 
whom I have met and from whom I have learned 
much, are persons who cannot write a word. Very 
many of the people who will come here may not 
be able to read or write, but we can learn some- 
thing from them notwithstanding, while they are 
here, and they can learn something from us. 

I want you to take delight in getting hold of 
these people and taking them through our shops, 
guiding them through our various agricultural 
and mechanical departments. Be sure that you 
exert every effort possible to make them com- 
fortable and happy while they are here. Here- 
tofore the students have been so generous, at the 
time of this meeting, that many of them, if neces- 
sary, have given up their rooms that these people 
might have a comfortable night's rest. I do not 
know where you have slept, but I do not think that 
in the history of the school a student was ever 



YOUR PART IN THE CONFERENCE 161 

asked to give up his room to any of these people 
that he did not gladly and freely do so. I believe 
that you are going to do the same thing this year. 

I want you, also, to remember that you not only 
can help the Conference to be a success by being 
polite and kindly to the farmers who come from 
this and other Southern States, but also by being 
polite and attentive to the representatives from 
the large institutions that will be here. We will 
have present representatives from every large 
institution engaged in the education of our people. 
It means much for the principals and instructors 
in these large colleges and industrial schools to 
leave their work and come as far as many of them 
do, to spend these days here. We have a re- 
sponsibility on their account; we desire them to 
feel that it has been worth their while to leave 
their work and spend their time and money to 
come here for these meetings. We wish them to 
get something out of our industries here ; we wish 
them to get something out of the training here, in 
every department, something which they can 
take back to their own institution to make their 
work there stronger and better. 

Now as to yourselves. You can get something 
out of this Conference for yourselves, by getting 



1 62 CHARACTER BUILDING 

hold of everything possible, so that when you go 
out from Tuskegee you will have just that much 
more helpful information to put into practice. I 
want to see you go out through the South and es- 
tablish local conferences. Call them together, 
and teach the same kind of lessons that we teach 
at these gatherings at Tuskegee. You can get 
the most out of this Conference by putting into 
practice this effort to make other people happy. 
To get the greatest happiness out of life is to make 
somebody else happy. To get the greatest good 
out of life is to do something for somebody else. 
I want you to find the persons who are most ignor- 
ant and most poverty stricken ; I want you to find 
the persons who are most forlorn and most dis- 
couraged, and do something for them to make 
their hours happy. In doing that, you will do 
the most for yourselves. 

I want each boy and each girl who belongs to 
this institution to be deep down in his or her heart 
a gentleman or a lady. A gentleman means 
simply this: a generous person; one who has 
learned to be kind; one who has learned to think 
not of himself first, but of the happiness and wel- 
fare of others. Let us put this spirit into our 
Conference day the coming week, and the day 



YOUR PART IN THE CONFERENCE 163 

and week will be the greatest and most successful 
that we have ever had. Let our resolution be 
that the persons who come here, whether they 
represent a university, a college, an industrial 
school, a farm, or a shop — let our resolve be that 
when these people leave here they shall take away 
with them from Tuskegee something that will 
make their lives happier, brighter, stronger and 
more useful. 






WHAT IS TO BE OUR FUTURE? 

Last Thursday afternoon I received a telegram 
from a gentleman stopping for a time in a city in 
Georgia, asking me to come there at once on im- 
portant business; and being rather curious to 
know what he wanted of me, I went. I found 
that this man was in the act of making his will, 
and that he had in mind the putting aside of a 
considerable sum in his will — some $20,000, in 
fact — for this institution. 

The special point upon which this gentleman 
wished to consult me was the future of the Institu- 
tion. He said that he had worked very hard for 
his money, that it had come as a result of much 
sacrifice and hard effort, and that there were 
friends of his who were beseeching him to use his 
money in other directions, because they thought 
it would be more likely to do permanent good 
elsewhere. And so he wished to know what the 
future of this Institution is likely to be, because 
he did not care to risk his money upon an un- 
certain venture, one that was likely to prosper for 

165 



166 CHARACTER BUILDING 

a few years, and then fail. He said that he would 
not like to give his money to an institution where 
it would not go on through the years, accomplish- 
ing a certain amount of good. Accordingly the 
question he repeated to me over and over again 
was: "What is to be the future of Tuskegee?" 
He wished to know whether, if we were given the 
money, it would go on from year to year, blessing 
one generation after another. 

My point in speaking to you to-night is to em- 
phasize what I think our good friend Professor 
Brown has already brought to our attention in 
one or two of his talks to us this week, the im- 
portance of making this institution what it ought 
to be, what its reputation gives it, and what its 
name implies. 

More and more I realize — and I remember that 
the gentleman of whom I have spoken repeated 
this to me with great emphasis — that so far as 
the outside world is concerned, Tuskegee is sure; 
you need not have the least doubt that the insti- 
tion will be supported. If we keep things right 
at the institution, if it is worthy of support, the 
moneyed people of the country will support it and 
stand by it. More and more each year this im- 
pression grows upon me, and more and more each 



WHAT IS TO BE OUR FUTURE ? 167 

year there are convincing evidences of the fact 
that the permanence and growth of this institu- 
tion do not rest upon whether the people of the 
South or the people of the North are going to 
support it with their means. I have the most 
implicit confidence that the institution is going 
to be supported. But the question that comes 
to us with the greatest force is: "Are we going 
to be worthy of that support? Shall we be 
worthy of the confidence of the public ? " That is 
the question that is most serious ; that is the ques- 
tion that presses most heavily upon my heart, 
and upon the hearts of the other teachers here. 

Now these questions can be answered satisfac- 
torily only by evidence that each student, each 
individual connected with the school in any way, 
no matter in how low or high a capacity, is put- 
ting his or her whole conscience into the work here. 
When I say work, I mean study of books, work 
of the hand, effort of the body, willingness of the 
heart. No matter what the thing is, put your 
conscience into it ; do your best. Let it be possible 
for you to say: " I have put my whole soul into 
my study, into my work, into whatever I have 
attempted. Whatever I have done I have 
honestly endeavored to do to the best of my abil- 
ity." 



168 CHARACTER BUILDING 

The questions which this gentleman asked me, 
and similar kinds of questions, are being asked 
over and over again by people all over the country. 
The question can be answered only by our putting 
our consciences into our work, and by our being 
entirely unselfish in it. Let every person get into 
the habit of planning every day for the comfort 
and welfare of others, let each one try to live as 
unselfishly as possible, remembering that the 
Bible says: "He that would save his life, must 
lose it. " And you never saw a person save his life 
in this higher sense, in the Christ-like sense, unless 
that person was willing, day by day, to lose him- 
self in the interest of his fellow-men. Such per- 
sons save their own lives, and in saving them 
save thousands of other lives. 

Such questions as these can be satisfactorily 
answered not merely by our putting our con- 
sciences into every effort, no matter what the 
effort may be, but by improving, day by day, upon 
what has been done the day before. In large in- 
stitutions and establishments it is comparatively 
easy to find persons who will sweep a room day 
by day, or plough a field during certain seasons of 
the year, and do other work at certain other seasons 
of the year, but the difficulty comes in finding per- 



WHAT 'IS TO BE OUR FUTURE? 169 

sons who make improvements in the manner of 
sweeping rooms, of ploughing fields and planting 
corn. The question for us is: "Are we going to 
put so much brains into our efforts every year, 
that we are going to go on steadily and constantly 
improving from year to year ? ' ' Are you going to 
get into the habit of so thinking about your work 
here that the habit will become, as it were, a part 
of yourself, so that when you go out into the 
world you will not be satisfied to take a position 
and go on in the same humdrum manner, but will 
not be satisfied until your work has been im- 
proved in every possible detail, and made easier, 
more systematic, and more convenient ? 

We must put brains into our work. There 
must be improvement in every department of this 
institution every year. It is absolutely impossi- 
ble for an institution to stand still; it must go 
forward or backward, grow better or worse each 
year. An institution grows stronger and more 
useful each year, or weaker and less useful. 

This institution can grow only by each person 
putting his thought into his work, by planning 
how he can improve the work of his particular 
department, by constantly striving to make his 
work more useful to the institution, by keeping 



170 CHARACTER BUILDING 

the place where he works cleaner, and making 
his work more business-like and more systematic. 
That is the only way in which the questions which 
people all over the country are asking about this 
institution can be satisfactorily answered. 

You will find that people will look to us more 
and more for tangible results. Not only here, 
but all over the country, our race is going to be 
called on to answer the question: "What can 
the race really accomplish ? " It is perfectly well 
understood by our friends as well as by our 
enemies, that we can write good newspaper 
articles and make good addresses, that we can 
sing well and talk well, and all that kind of thing. 
All that is perfectly well understood and conceded. 
But the question that will be more and more 
forced upon us for an answer is: "Can we work 
out our thoughts, can we put them into tangible 
shape, so that the world may see from day to day 
actual evidences of our intellectuality?" 

Last winter I was in the town of Clinton, 
Iowa. I think I had never heard of the place 
before, and when I got there I was surprised to 
find it a place of more than 16,000 inhabitants. 
The gentleman who was to entertain me wanted 
to take me to a coloured restaurant. I expected 



WHAT IS TO BE OUR FUTURE? 171 

to go into a restaurant of the kind operated by 
our people generally, and I was very much sur- 
prised when he took me into a large, two-story 
building. I found the floors carpeted, and every- 
thing about the place as pleasant and attractive 
as it was possible to make it. In fact the restau- 
rant compared very favourably with many in the 
largest cities in the country. I found the waiters 
clean, the service good, and everything conducted 
in the most systematic manner. And there was 
not the least thing, except the colour of the pro- 
prietor's skin, to show that the place was operated 
by coloured people. 

Afterward my friend took me into another es- 
tablishment of the same size, operated in the 
same creditable manner by another coloured 
man. In both I found that these gentlemen not 
only carried on a regular restaurant business, but 
manufactured their own candies and ice cream, 
and did a sort of wholesale catering business. I 
asked the white people there what they thought 
of the coloured people, and I did not find a single 
white person who did not have the most implicit 
confidence in the coloured people. The trouble 
was that there were not many coloured people 
there. That accounts possibly for the good 



172 CHARACTER BUILDING 

opinion which the white people have of them. 
But you see what just two black men can do. 
These people had never seen many black people, 
but fortunately for us they had with them two 
of the best specimens of our race that I have ever 
seen anywhere in this country. As a result you 
do not find any one cursing the black man in that 
town. Everybody had the utmost confidence in 
black people, and respected them. 

Just in proportion as we can establish object 
lessons of this kind all over the country, you will 
find that the problem that now is so perplexing 
will disappear. Until we do this, we shall not be 
able to talk away, or to argue away, this prejudice. 
We cannot talk our way into our rights ; we must 
Work our way, think our way, into them. And 
you will find that just in proportion as we do this, 
we are going to get all we deserve. 



SOME GREAT LITTLE THINGS 

I Am going to speak to you for a few minutes to- 
night upon what I shall term " Some Great Little 
Things." I speak of them as great, because of 
their supreme importance, and I speak of them 
as little, because they come in a class of things 
which are usually looked upon by many people 
as small and unimportant. But in an institution 
like this I think they often hold first place — 
certainly they come under the head of important 
things that we can learn. 

You will remember that in the sermon the 
Chaplain preached this morning, he mentioned 
the three-fold division of our nature ; the physical 
part, the mental part, and the spiritual part. 
What I shall refer to to-night has largely to do 
with the material, the physical part of our na- 
tures. There are certain little things that each 
one of you can learn now, in connection with the 
care of your bodies, which, if left unlearned now, 
will perhaps go without being learned all your 
lives. You are now, as it were, at the parting 

173 



? 



i74 CHARACTER BUILDING 

of the ways — you are going to make these habits 
a part of yourselves, or you are going to let them 
escape you forever, and be weak in a measure 
all your lives for not having made them a part of 
yourselves. 

I am going to speak very plainly, because I feel 
that such talk means nothing unless it is in lan- 
guage which every one can appreciate and under- 
stand. Now, among the first things that a person 
going to a boarding school should learn, if he has 
not already learned it at home — and I am con- 
stantly being surprised at the number who seem 
to have thus left it unlearned — is the habit of 
regular and systematic bathing. No person who 
has left this habit unlearned can reach the highest 
success in life. I mean by that, that a person who 
does not get into the habit of keeping the body 
clean, cannot do the highest work and the greatest 
amount of work in the world. When it comes to 
competing with persons who have learned the 
habit of keeping the body in good condition, you 
will find that the first named persons usually win 
in the race of life. I think many of you have 
already learned from your physiologies that when 
it comes to the combating of disease, where two 
persons are on a sick-bed with the same disease, 



SOME GREAT LITTLE THINGS 175 

the one who is habitually clean in his personal 
habits has a far greater chance for recovery than 
the one who has not learned the habit of cleanli- 
ness. You will also find that the person who is in 
the habit of caring for his body is in a better con- 
dition for study ; he is in a condition to bear pro- 
longed and severe exertion, while the person 
whose body is unclean is in a weak condition. 

Take the matter of the teeth. Persons cannot 
call themselves educated and refined who do not 
make the matter of the cleanliness and proper 
care of their teeth an important part of themselves. 
When I speak of making such a thing a part of 
yourselves, I mean that you should make it such 
a strong habit that to leave it undone would 
seem unnatural. Some person has defined man 
as a bundle of habits. There are many habits 
that I wish you to make a part of yourselves, by 
practising so constantly that they may really be 
said to have become that. 

There is the matter of the care of the hair, 
which everyone should make a part of himself. 
There is also the proper care of the finger nails. 

Now all of these are common things, but they 
are great things. I should not recommend very 
highly a young man or young woman who went 



176 CHARACTER BUILDING 

out from this institution as a graduate, and had 
not learned the habit of caring for the teeth, hair 
and nails systematically. Are you making these 
lessons a part of yourself ? 

Take the young men and young women who 
have been here two or three years. Have you 
grown to the point where you are dissatisfied and 
all out of sorts when your hair is not combed, 
your finger nails dirty, and your body not in the 
condition it should be in? If you have not 
reached that point, when you come to graduate, 
then there will be something Wrong with your 
education, and you are not ready to go out from 
this institution, whether you are in the senior 
class or in the preparatory class. 

Another thing; I confess that I cannot have 
the highest kind of respect for the person who is 
in the habit of going day after day with buttons 
off his clothes. There is no excuse for it, when 
buttons are so cheap. I wonder how many of 
you could stand, if I were now to ask all to stand 
who have every button in its place. I cannot 
have the best opinion of a girl who will let a hole 
remain in her apron day after day. Nor can I 
think well of a man who does not remove a grease 
spot from his coat as soon as he discovers it. 



SOME GREAT LITTLE THINGS 177 

You have more respect for yourselves, and 
other people have more respect for you, when 
you get into the habit of polishing your shoes, no 
matter where you are, but especially when you 
are at school. Every man should get into the 
habit of polishing his shoes. See to it that they 
are in proper condition at all times. 

I need not repeat here, after what I have said, 
that it is of the utmost importance that every 
person wear the cleanest of linen. If I speak to 
you so plainly, it is because I want you to make 
these matters a part of yourselves to such an ex- 
tent that they will be essential to your happiness 
and success. I want every girl who goes away from 
here to be so nearly perfect in her dress that she 
cannot be happy if there is any detail unattended 
to; and I want the same thing to be true of the 
young men. Let these things have an important 
bearing on your education here, and on your life 
hereafter. 

And then, above all things, although on ac- 
count of the number of students here you are 
very much crowded in your rooms and will have 
to make all the harder effort on that account, get 
into the habit of being orderly and neat. School 
your room-mates to the point where they will 



178 CHARACTER BUILDING 

have a place for everything. Always know 
where to put your hands on anything you may 
want in your room, whether in the light or in the 
dark. 

Then there are one or two other little things. 
You should have quiet in your rooms, at your 
work or in your talk with your fellow students. 
Do your work quietly. Get into the habit of 
closing doors quietly. You cannot realize how 
much all these little things add to your happiness 
and to the manhood and womanhood which you 
are going to build up as the years go on. 

And then, in conclusion, so order your lives 
that you can form the habit of reading. Set 
aside a certain amount of time each day, even 
if it be not more than four or five minutes, for 
reading and studying aside from your lessons. 
Read books of travel, history and biography. I 
want you to patronize the library this year as 
never before. In it are great numbers of books 
by authors of the highest rank. 

Be regular in all your habits. Have a regular 
time for studying, for recreation, and for sleeping. 

And last, but far from least, set aside a regular 
time for thinking, for meditating with yourself. 
Take yourself up, pick yourself to pieces, see 



SOME GREAT LITTLE THINGS 179 

wherein you are weak and need strengthening. 
Analyze yourself. Get rid, as it were, of all the 
weights that have been holding you back, and 
resolve at the end of each week that you will walk 
upon your dead selves of the week before. If you 
will go on, making that kind of progress, you will 
find at the end of the nine school months that you 
are stronger in everything essential to good man- 
hood and good womanhood. 



. TO WOULD-BE TEACHERS 

Since very many of you whom I see before me 
to-night will spend some part of your lives after 
you leave here as teachers, even if you do not 
make teaching your life work, I am going to talk 
over with you again a subject on which I have 
spoken elsewhere — How to build up a good 
school in the South. 

The coloured schools of the South, especially 
in the country districts and smaller towns, are 
not kept open by the State fund, as a rule, longer 
than three or four months in the year. One of 
the great questions, then, with teachers and pa- 
rents, is how to extend the school term to seven 
or eight months, so that the school shall really do 
some good. 

I want to give a few plain suggestions, which 
will, I think, if carefully followed, result in placing 
a good school in almost every community. In 
this I am not speculating, because more than one 
Tuskegee graduate has built up a good school on 
the plan I outline. 

181 



/ 



1 82 CHARACTER BUILDING 

In the first place the teacher must be willing to 
settle down in the community, and feel that that 
is to be his home, and teaching there his chief ob- 
ject in life while he is there. Not only must he 
not feel that he can move about from place to 
place every three months, but he must feel that 
he is not working for his salary alone. He must 
be willing to sacrifice for the good of the commu- 
nity. 

The next thing is to get a convenient school- 
house. Usually, in the far South, the State has 
not been able to build a school-house. How is it 
to be secured? A good school-house should be 
carefully planned. Then the teacher or some one 
else should go among the people in the community, 
coloured and white, and get each individual to 
give something, no matter how small an amount 
if in money, or, if not in money, how little in value, 
for purchasing lumber. When we were getting 
started here at Tuskegee one old coloured woman 
brought me six eggs as her contribution to our 
work. 

If enough money cannot be secured by sub- 
scription and collection to pay for the lumber, a 
supper, a festival, entertainment or church col- 
lection will help out. After the lumber is secured, 



TO WOULD-BE TEACHERS 183 

the parents should be asked to "club in" with 
their waggons and haul it free. Then at least one 
good carpenter should be secured to take the 
lead in building. Each member of the commu- 
nity should agree to give a certain number of days' 
work in helping to put up the structure. In this 
work of building, the larger pupils can help a 
good deal, and they will have all the more interest 
in the school-house because they have had a hand 
in its erection. In these ways, by patient effort, 
a good frame school-house can be secured in almost 
any community. 

Where it is possible, take a three or four months' 
public school as a starting point, and work in co- 
operation with the school officers, but do not let 
the school close at the end of these three or four 
months, because if that is done it will amount to 
almost nothing. 

As soon as the teacher goes into a community, 
he should organize the people into an educational 
society or club, and there should be regular meet- 
ings once a week, or once in two weeks, at which 
plans for the improvement of the school should 
be discussed. 

There are a number of ways for extending the 
school term. One is for each parent to pay ten, 



i8 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

fifteen, twenty-five or fifty cents each month 
during the whole time the school is in session. 
Frequently parents who cannot pay in cash can 
let the teacher have eggs, chickens, butter, sweet 
potatoes, corn or some other kind of produce 
which will help to supply the teacher with food. 
Another plan is for each farmer to set aside a por- 
tion of land and give all that is raised upon it to 
the school. Still another plan, and one that is 
being successfully carried out in at least one place, 
and one that I think much of, is for the teacher to 
secure, either by renting or purchase, a small 
tract of land — say from two to five acres — and let 
the children cultivate this land while they are 
attending school. If, in this way, three bales of 
cotton can be raised, and a variety of vegetables 
and grain also, the produce can be sold and the 
school term extended from three months to six 
or seven months. 

Some parents may object to this at first, but 
they will soon see that it is better to let the school 
close at one o'clock or two o'clock in the afternoon, 
so that the children may work on the school land 
for an hour or two, and in this way keep the school 
open six or seven months, than to let it close en- 
tirely at the end of three months. There is an- 



TO WOULD-BE TEACHERS 185 

other advantage in this latter plan. The teacher 
can in this way teach the students, in a practical 
way, better methods of farming. Short talks on 
the principles of agriculture are worth much more 
to them than time spent in committing to mem- 
ory the names of mountain peaks in Central 
Africa. Very often there is enough land right 
around the school-house for the pupils to 
cultivate. 

In every case where it is possible, the teacher 
should buy a home in the community, and make 
his home in every way a model for those of the 
people who live around him. The teacher should 
cultivate a farm, or follow some trade while not 
teaching. This not only helps him, but sets a 
good example for the people in the community. 
If the teacher be a woman, there are few commu- 
nities where she cannot add much to her income 
by sewing, dressmaking or poultry-raising. 



THE CULTIVATION OF STABLE HABITS 

I am going to speak with you a few minutes this 
evening upon the matter of stability. I want 
you to understand when you start out in school, 
that no individual can accomplish anything unless 
he means to stick to what he undertakes. No 
matter how many possessions he may have, no 
matter how much he may have in this or that 
direction, no matter how much learning or skill 
of hand he may possess, an individual cannot 
succeed unless, at the same time, he possesses that 
quality which will enable him to stick to what 
he undertakes. In a word he is not to be jumping 
from this thing to that thing. 

That is the reason why so many ministers fail. 
They preach awhile, and then jump to something 
else. They do not stick to one thing. It is the 
same with many lawyers and doctors. They do 
not stick to what they undertake. Many business 
men fail for the same reason. When an individual 
gets a reputation — no matter what he has under- 
taken — of not having the quality of sticking to a 

x«7 



1 88 CHARACTER BUILDING 

thing until he succeeds in reaching the end, that 
reputation nullifies the influence for good of the 
better traits of his character in every direction. It 
is said of him that he is unstable. 

I want you to begin your school life with the 
idea that you are going to stick to whatever you 
undertake until you have completed it. I take 
it for granted that all of you have come here with 
that idea in mind ; that before you came here you 
sat down and talked the matter over with your 
father and mother, read over the circulars giving 
information about the school, and then deliberately 
decided that this institution was the one whose 
course of study you wished to complete. I take 
it for granted that you have come here with that 
end in view, and I want to say to you now, that 
you will injure yourselves, your parents, and the 
institution — and you will hurt your own reputa- 
tion — unless, after having come here with the 
determination to succeed, you remain here for 
that purpose, and remain for the full time, until 
you receive your diploma. I hope every indi- 
vidual here, every young man and woman at the 
school, is here with the determination that he or 
she will not give up the struggle until the object 
aimed at has been attained. 



CULTIVATION OF STABLE HABITS 189 

You are at a stage now, when, if you begin 
jumping about here and there, if you begin in this 
course of study and then go to that course of 
study, you will very likely be jumping about 
from one thing to another all your life. You 
must make up your minds, after coming here, to 
do well whatever you undertake. This is a good 
rule not only to begin your school life with, but 
also to begin your later life with. 

Perhaps I was never more interested than I 
was last evening in Montgomery, while standing 
on one of the streets there for an hour. I seldom 
stand on any street for an hour, but last night 
I did stand on that street for an hour, in front of 
a large, beautiful store that is owned by Mr. J. W. 
Adams, and watched the notice taken of the dis- 
play of millinery made in his store windows by 
two girls that finished their academic and in- 
dustrial courses at this school — Miss Jemmie 
Pierce and Miss Lydia Robinson. The first Mon- 
day in October is always the day in Montgomery 
for what they call the millinery openings ; on that 
day the stores which handle such goods all make 
a great display of ladies' hats and bonnets. It 
was surprising and interesting to note how these 
two girls had entered a great city like Montgomery 



i9o CHARACTER BUILDING 

and had taken entire charge of the millinery de- 
partment in a large store. Hundreds of people 
stopped to comment favourably upon the taste 
that was displayed in the decoration of those 
windows. 

Now, all this work was done by two Tuskegee 
graduates. And the complimentary remarks that 
were made came not only from coloured people 
but from white people as well. No one could tell 
from the windows of that store whether it was a 
coloured or a white establishment. Many of 
the white ladies who were standing there did not 
know that they were standing in front of a store 
that was owned by a black man. It had none of 
the usual earmarks about it. Usually when you 
go into coloured establishments you see grease on 
the doors or on the counters ; or you see this sign 
or that sign that this is a coloured man's estab- 
lishment. Those of you here who are going to go 
into business after you leave school do not want 
to have any such earmarks about your establish- 
ments. Such a store as that of Mr. Adams is the 
kind of a store to have. 

Now, these two young women have made a repu- 
tation for themselves. They went into the millin- 
ery division while they were here, and they reT 



CULTIVATION OF STABLE HABITS 191 

mained until they graduated. One of them, I 
believe had not finished in the millinery depart- 
ment when she received her academic diploma, 
and so she came back last year and took a post- 
graduate course in millinery. It is interesting 
and encouraging to see these two young women 
succeeding in their work, and it all comes from 
their determination to succeed, and because they 
had sense enough to finish what they had un- 
dertaken. 

That is the lesson that you all want to learn. 
If you do not learn it now, in a large degree you 
will be failures in life. You want to be like these 
young women. You want to fight it out. Now 
if you mean to get your diploma, you are going 
to have a hard time. Some of you are going to be 
without shoes, without a hat, without proper 
clothing of any kind. You will get discouraged 
because you have not as nice a dress or as nice a 
hat as this person or that person. I would not 
give a snap of my finger for a person who would 
give up for that. The thing for you to do is to 
fight it out. Get something in your head, and 
don't worry about what you can get to put on it. 
The clothes will come afterward. 

You are going to be greatly discouraged some- 



i 9 2 CHARACTER BUILDING 

times, but if you will heed the lesson of fighting 
out what you have undertaken, that same disposi- 
tion will follow you all through life, and you will 
get a reputation, because people will say of you 
that there is a person who sticks to whatever he 
or she undertakes. One of the saddest things 
in life is to see an individual who has grown to old 
age, with no profession, with no calling whatever 
from which he is sure of getting an independent 
living. It is sad to see such individuals without 
money, without homes, in their old age, simply 
because they did not learn the lesson of saving 
money and getting for themselves a beautiful 
home when they ought to have done this. And 
so, all through life, we can point to many people 
who have not learned this lesson — that for what- 
ever they undertake they must pay the price 
which the world asks of them if they would suc- 
ceed. If we are going to succeed we must pay 
the price for what we get; and he who accom- 
plishes the most, accomplishes it in an humble and 
straightforward way, by sticking to what he has 
undertaken. He who does this finds in the end 
that he has achieved a tremendous success. 



WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO 

It is comparatively easy to perform almost any 
kind of work, but the value of any work is in hav- 
ing it performed so that the desired results may be 
most speedily reached, and in having the means 
with which the worker labours arranged so as to 
meet certain ends. It is the constant problem of 
those organs which have charge of the well-being 
of the body, to cause digestion to take place, so 
that what is nourishing in the food may reach 
every part of the body, not only the portions 
near the organs in which digestion takes place, 
but also the most extreme parts of the different 
members. 

Just so it is the aim of all persons who are ac- 
customed to making public addresses to try to 
make those who are far away from them hear 
them as well as those who sit near. In this same 
way, it seems to me more and more every year, it 
is going to be the main object of all our schools in 
the South to make their influence felt most forci- 
bly among those who are remote from them. 

193 



i 9 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

How can we reach the masses who are remote — I 
mean remote from educational advantages and 
from opportunities for encouragement and en- 
lightenment ? The problem in the rural districts 
is difficult because of the vastness of the number 
to be reached, and of the frequent difficulty of 
reaching them. We must keep this fact before us, 
then; that institutions of this kind are of little 
value unless they can pave the way to make the 
results of their work felt among the masses of 
the people who are especially remote from these 
institutions. 

It is a fact, as most of you know, that we very 
seldom meet with a thoroughly well-educated 
teacher in the rural districts, in spite of the pass- 
ing of over thirty years since we became men and 
women. You know, too, that the same thing is, 
in too large a measure, true of the ministry. The 
responsibility for reaching these people, for affect- 
ing them for good, rests upon the young men and 
young women who are being educated in these 
Southern institutions to-day. 

What are you going to do as your part towards 
reaching these people, towards carrying to them 
the light which they need so much and so earn- 
estly long for? Difficult as this problem is, it 



WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO 195 

is not a discouraging one, because these people 
are ready to follow the light as soon as they are 
sure that the right kind of light is set up before 
them. You very seldom meet with a coloured 
man who is not conscious of his ignorance, and 
who is not anxious to get up as soon as he finds 
himself down. In this respect the problem is en- 
couraging. 

One of the ways in which the problem is serious 
is with respect to labour. In almost every city 
and town in the South a large proportion of the 
coloured people are shiftless so far as manual 
labour is concerned, although I think there is 
already improvement. The masses of our people 
are given to thrift and industry, and to unremit- 
ting toil, in their way. The hard thing about it, 
the discouraging thing, is that they do not know 
how to realize on the results of their toil ; because 
they have no education and little idea of industrial 
development, they do not know how to make 
their work tell for what it ought to. As a general 
thing the people — those in the country especially 
— do not ask anybody to come and give them 
food, clothing and houses ; all they ask is for some 
person, some honest, upright man or woman who 
is interested in their welfare, to come among them 



196 CHARACTER BUILDING 

and show them how to direct their efforts and 
their energy, show them how best to realize on 
the results of their work, so that they can supply 
their own moral, religious and material needs 
and educate their children. 

And you will find that wherever this institution, 
Hampton, Talladega, Fisk, Atlanta or any other, 
can put in the midst of the people young men and 
young women who will settle down among them 
and make their lives object lessons for the people 
— plant a good school and convince the people 
that the teacher has settled down there to stay 
through encouraging or discouraging circum- 
stances — you will find that such a teacher will not 
only be encouraged, but will be supported ma- 
terially. In every way there will be an opportun- 
ity for that person to revolutionize the community. 
That opportunity is open to you. It is an oppor- 
tunity which is being opened to no other set of 
young men and young women who are being edu- 
cated anywhere else in the world. Are you going 
to appreciate the beauty and grandeur of this 
opportunity ? 

I was talking with a gentleman last night who 
has recently spent some time in one of the 
Southern states, and he told me that in hardly any 



WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO 197 

country district in that state was there a public 
school which is kept open longer than four months. 
He tells me that the average salary in some of 
those districts is little more than fifteen dollars a 
month. In another state the condition of the 
people is about the same. In our own state 
perhaps the conditions are worse even than in the 
states referred to. In some counties in Alabama 
the people are this year receiving no money to run 
their schools more than three and a half months 
in the year, except, of course, in the cities and 
towns. In some counties the teachers are being 
paid only twelve to twenty dollars, and there are 
possibly some where the teachers get not more 
than ten dollars from the state fund. 

I was talking with a gentleman from another 
state not long ago about the material condi- 
tion of the people in that state, and he told me 
that so far as their industrial life is concerned, 
the masses are in a very bad condition this 
year ; that they are too often at the mercy 
of the landowners — I refer to the persons 
who run the large plantations — and that the same 
thing is largely true of all of the cotton-raising 
states. I need not go on to describe to you the 
moral results that must inevitably follow such a 



198 CHARACTER BUILDING 

condition of things. I need not take your time 
to tell you that there can be little morality or re- 
ligion among people who are so ignorant as these 
people, and who do not know where they are go- 
ing to get anything to eat. It is needless to de- 
scribe the train of moral evils that must follow 
such conditions as these. 

What I have attempted to describe to you as 
existing to-day in these country districts may not 
be very encouraging, but it seems to me that 
every young man and young woman who has en- 
joyed the privileges afforded by this and by other 
institutions in the South — I speak especially now 
to the members of the next graduating class — 
should feel that such conditions as these present 
one of the most inviting fields possible for labour. 
Every young man and woman here is being edu- 
cated by money that is given by others. None 
of you are paying for the education you are re- 
ceiving. You might pay for your board, but you 
would have to do that elsewhere. Every one 
must pay for his or her own clothing, but the cost 
of buildings, rent, tuition, expenses and other 
matters pertaining to the institution you do not 
pay. Your education, in a large measure, is a 
gift from the public, and it seems to me that one 



WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO 199 

of the first things you should do is to repay, to as 
large an extent as is possible with your services, 
what has been spent in giving you so large a part 
of your education. 

This is a debt that you owe not only to your- 
selves, but to our race and our country. It is a 
religious debt as well, that you be willing to go 
out into these country districts and suffer, as it 
were, for a few years, until you can get a foothold, 
so that you can plant yourselves in one of these 
dark communities. I feel sure that you would 
not have to suffer very long. I believe that the 
hardest part of the struggle would come during 
the first two or three years. When you can con- 
vince the people that you are in earnest, the battle 
is won. When you can convince them that it 
is cheaper to keep an educated teacher than to 
keep one who is ignorant, and when you can once 
demonstrate your value to them not only in an 
educational respect but industrially and morally, 
the battle is won, and these people will stand by 
you and support you. In many cases, it is my 
belief, you will eventually find yourselves better 
supported financially than you would if you 
had gone to work in cities and large towns. No 
matter from which side you look at this problem, 
good is bound to come from it. 



2oo CHARACTER BUILDING 

And while we are talking about the reward that 
will come as a result of your services, let me tell you 
that no greater satisfaction can come to any one 
than that which you will get from the worship and 
praise which will come to you from these old 
mothers and fathers who will be benefited by 
your services. I know of instances where teachers 
have gone and planted themselves in these country 
districts who, even if they do not make such a very 
great success financially, receive the love and 
most sincere worship from year to year, because 
of the feeling of gratitude which the people 
among whom they have settled have for them on 
account of their having helped them in so many 
ways. 

This same kind of pioneer work had to be done 
all over the world before the right kind of civiliza- 
tion was planted. It was such work as this that 
the people did who settled the great West, where 
they were deprived of the comforts of life. The 
people who planted Oberlin College in what was 
then a wilderness had to suffer many such hard- 
ships. The men who went to Washington, Ore- 
gon, and California and established what are now 
\ large cities there, had to suffer many such hard- 

) ships ; they had to suffer just what you must and 



WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO 201 

should suffer. Are you going to suffer for your 
own people until they can receive the light which 
they so much need? If the young men and 
women before me have the right kind of stuff in 
them they will do this. Most certainly do I hope 
that you are going to carry out into these dark 
communities the light which you receive here 
from day to day. I hope you will fill these districts 
with men and women of education. When you go 
out from here with your diploma, whether it be 
next May or at some other time, resolve to plant 
yourself in one community and stay there. No 
matter what your work is, you cannot accomplish 
much if you become the wandering Jew. Find 
the community where you think you can use your 
life to the best advantage, and then stay there. 



[In the time that has elapsed since this talk was given, I 
think there has been improvement in many of the country- 
schools in the South, and in the general condition of the 
people as described to me then. — B. IF. "WV 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY 

I have referred in a general way, before this, 
when I have been speaking to you, to the fact that 
each one of you ought to feel an interest in what- 
ever task is set you to do here over and above the 
mere bearing which that task has on your own 
life. I wish to speak more specifically to-night 
on this subject — on what I may term the im- 
portance of your feeling a sense of personal re- 
sponsibility not only for the successful perform- 
ance of every task set you, but for the successful 
outcome of every worthy undertaking with which 
you come in contact. 

You ought to realize that your actions will not 
affect yourselves alone. In this age it is almost 
impossible for a man to live for himself alone. 
On every side our lives touch those of others; 
their lives touch ours. Even if it were possible 
to live otherwise, few would wish to. A narrow 
life, a selfish life, is almost sure to be not only un- 
profitable but unhappy. The happy people and 
the successful people are those who go out of their 

203 



2o 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

way to reach and influence for good as many 
persons as they can. In order to do this, though, 
in order best to fit one's self to live this kind of 
life, it is important that certain habits be ac- 
quired ; and an essential one of these is the habit 
of realizing one's responsibility to others. 

Your actions will affect other people in one way 
or another, and you will be responsible for the re- 
sult. You ought always to remember this, and 
govern yourselves accordingly. Suppose it is the 
matter of the recitation of a lesson, for instance. 
Some one may say: "It is nobody's business 
but my own if I fail in a recitation. Nobody will 
suffer but me." This is not so. Indirectly you 
injure your teacher also, for while a conscientious, 
hard-working teacher ought not to be blamed for 
the failures of pupils who do not learn simply 
because they do not want to, or are too lazy to 
try, it is generally the case that a teacher's reputa- 
tion gains or loses as his or her class averages high 
or low. And each failure in recitation, for what- 
ever cause, brings down the average. Then, too, 
you are having an influence upon your classmates, 
even if it be unconscious. There is hardly ever a 
student who is not observed by some one at some 
time as an example. "There is such a boy," 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY 205 

some other student says to himself. "He has 
failed in class ever so many times, and still he 
gets along. It can't make much difference if I 
fail once. " And as a result he neglects his duty, 
and does fail. 

The same thing is true of work in the industrial 
departments. Too many students try to see how 
easily they can get through the day, or the work 
period, and yet not get into trouble. Or even if 
they take more interest than this, they care for 
their work only for the sake of what they can 
get out of it for themselves, either as pay, or as 
instruction which will enable them to work for 
pay at some later time. Now there ought to be a 
higher impulse behind your efforts than that. 
Each student ought to feel that he or she has a 
personal responsibility to do each task in the 
very best manner possible. You owe this not 
only to your fellow-students, your teachers, the 
school, and the people who support the institu- 
tion, but you owe it even more to yourselves. 
You owe it to yourselves because it is right and 
honest, because nothing less than this is right and 
honest, and because you never can be really suc- 
cessful and really happy until you do study and 
work and live in this way. 



2o6 CHARACTER BUILDING 

I have been led to speak specifically on this sub- 
ject to-night on account of two occurrences here 
which have come to my notice. One of these 
illustrates the failure on the part of students to 
feel this sense of responsibility to which I have 
referred. The other affords an illustration of 
the possession by a student of a feeling of personal 
interest and personal responsibility which has 
been very gratifying and encouraging. The first 
incident, I may say, occurred some months ago. It 
is possible that the students who were concerned 
in it may not be here now or, if they are, that 
it would not happen again. I certainly hope not. 
A gentleman who had been visiting here was to 
go away. He left word at the office of his wish, 
saying that he planned to leave town on the five 
o'clock train in the afternoon. A boy was sent 
from the office early in the afternoon with a note 
to the barn ordering a carriage to take this gentle- 
man and his luggage to the station. Half-past 
four came, and the man had his luggage brought 
down to the door of the building in which he had 
been staying, so as to be ready when the team 
came. But no team came. The visitor finally 
became so anxious that he walked over to the 
barn himself. Just as he reached the barn he met 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY 207 

the man who was in charge there, with the note 
in his hand. The note had only just that moment 
reached this man, and of course no carriage had 
been sent because the first person who felt that 
he had any responsibility in the matter had only 
just learned that a carriage was wanted. The 
boy who had brought the note had given it to 
another boy, and he to someone else, and he, 
perhaps, to someone else. At any rate it had 
been delayed because no one had taken enough 
interest in the errand to see that whatever busi- 
ness the note referred to received proper attention. 
This occurred, as I have said, several months ago, 
before the local train here went over to Chehaw 
to meet all of the trains. It happened that this 
particular passenger was going north, and it was 
possible by driving to Chehaw for him to get there 
in time to take the north-bound train. If he had 
been going the other way, though, towards Mont- 
gomery, he would have lost the train entirely, 
and, as chanced to be the case, would have been 
unable to keep a very important engagement. 
As it was, he was obliged to ride to Chehaw in a 
carriage, and the time of a man and team, which 
otherwise would have been saved, was required 
to take him there. 



2o8 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Now when such a thing as this happens, no 
amount of saying, "I am sorry," by the person 
or persons to blame, will help the matter any. It 
is too late to help it then. The thing to do is to 
feel some responsibility in seeing that things are 
done right yourself. Take enough interest in 
whatever you are engaged in to see that it is going 
to come out in the end just as nearly right, just 
as nearly perfect, as anything you can do will 
go towards making it right or perfect. And if 
the task or errand passes out of your hands be- 
fore it is completed, do not feel that your respon- 
sibility in the matter ends until you have im- 
pressed it upon the minds and heart of the person 
to whom you turn over the further performance 
of the duty. 

The world is looking for men and women who 
can tell one why they can do this thing or that 
thing, how a certain difficulty was surmounted or 
a certain obstacle removed. But the world has 
little patience with the man or woman who takes 
no real interest in the performance of a duty, or 
who runs against a snag and gets discouraged, 
and then simply tells why he did not do a thing, 
and gives excuses instead of results. Opportuni- 
ties never come a second time, nor do they wait 



k 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY 209 

for our leisure. The years come to us but once, 
and they come then only to pass swiftly on, bear- 
ing the ineffaceable record we have put upon them. 
If we wish to make them beautiful years or profit- 
able years, we must do it moment by moment as 
they glide before us. 

The other case to which I have referred is 
pleasanter to speak about. One day this spring, 
after it had got late enough in the season so that 
it was not as a general thing necessary to have 
fires to heat our buildings, a student passing 
Phelps Hall noticed that there was a volume of 
black smoke pouring out of one of the chimneys 
there. Some boys might not have noticed the 
smoke at all ; others would have said that it came 
from the chimney; still others would have said 
that it was none of their business anyway, and 
would have gone along. This boy was different. 
He noticed the smoke, and although he saw, or 
thought he saw that it came from the chimney, 
and if so was probably no sign of harm, he felt 
that any smoke at all there at that time was such 
an unusual thing that it ought to be investigated 
for fear it might mean danger to the building. 
He was not satisfied until he had gone into the 
building and had inspected every floor clear up to 




2io CHARACTER BUILDING 

the attic, to see that the chimney and the building 
were not in danger. As it happened, the janitor 
had built a fire in the furnace in the basement for 
some reason, so that the young man's anxiety 
fortunately was unfounded, but I am heartily 
glad he had such an anxiety, and that he 
could not rest until he found out whether 
there was any foundation for it or not. I 
shall feel that all of our buildings are safer 
for his being here, and when he graduates 
and goes away I hope he will leave many 
others here who will have the same sense 
of personal responsibility which he had. Let me 
tell you, here and now, that unless you young 
men and young women come to have this charac- 
teristic, your lives are going to fall far short of the 
best and noblest achievement possible. 

We frequently hear the word "lucky" used 
with reference to a man's life. Two boys start 
out in the world at the same time, having the 
same amount of education. When twenty years 
have passed, we find one of them wealthy and in- 
dependent; we find him a successful professional 
man with an assured reputation, or perhaps at 
the head of a large commercial establishment em- 
ploying many men, or perhaps a farmer owning 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY 211 

and cultivating hundreds of acres of land. We 
find the second boy, grown now to be a man, 
working for perhaps a dollar or a dollar and a half 
a day, and living from hand to mouth in a rented 
house. When we remember that the boys started 
out in life equal-handed, we may be tempted to 
remark that the first boy has been fortunate, that 
fortune has smiled on him; and that the second 
has been unfortunate. There is no such nonsense 
as that. When the first boy saw a thing that he 
knew he ought to do, he did it ; and he kept rising 
from one position to another until he became in- 
dependent. The second boy was an eye-servant 
who was afraid that he would do more than he 
was paid to do — he was afraid that he would give 
fifty cents' worth of labour for twenty-five cents. 
He watched the clock, for fear that he would work 
one minute past twelve o'clock at noon and past 
six o'clock at night. He did not feel that he had 
any responsibility to look out for his employer's 
interests. The first boy did a dollar's worth of 
work for fifty cents. He was always ready to be 
at the store before time ; and then, when the bell 
rang to stop work, he would go to his employer 
and ask him if there was not something more that 
ought to be done that night before he went home. 



212 CHARACTER BUILDING 

It was this quality in the first boy that made him 
valuable and caused him to rise. Why should 
we call him "fortunate" or " lucky?" I think 
it would be much more suitable to say of him: 
" He is responsible. " 



GETTING ON IN THE WORLD. 

It is natural and praiseworthy for a person to be 
looking for a higher and better position than the 
one he occupies. So long as a man does his whole 
duty in what he is engaged in, he is not to be con- 
demned for looking for something better to do. 
Now the question arises: — How are you going to 
put yourself in a condition to be in demand for 
these higher and more important positions ? 

In the first place you should be continually on 
the lookout for opportunities to improve your- 
selves in your present work. You should be con- 
stantly on the lookout for chances to make your- 
selves more valuable to your present employer, 
and more efficient in your work for him. Sup- 
pose you are engaged in the work of milking cows 
— I think it better to talk of practical things with 
which you all are acquainted, although I know that 
many of you boys had rather I would tell you 
how to go to Congress than how to become suc- 
cessful milkers. Inasmuch, though, as I suspect 
a good many more of us will have to milk cows 

213 



2i 4 CHARACTER BUILDING 

than can go to Congress, I think it will not hurt 
us to talk about milking. If the boy who milks 
cows now does that thoroughly, by doing it he 
may lay the foundation to go to Congress later. 
The point is, that we want to be constantly on the 
lookout for ways of improving whatever work we 
are engaged in, whether that work be milking 
cows or doing something else. 

In whatever you are doing, there are a great 
many improvements which you want to become 
acquainted with. If your work is dairying, read 
the dairy journals. Get hold of every book or 
paper that you can which has anything to do with 
your line of work. Be sure that you know all — 
or as nearly as possible all — there is to be known 
about milking cows. And then don't be content 
with what you get out of books and newspapers, 
for that information is only the result of some 
other person's experience. By conversing with 
intelligent and experienced persons, and by your 
own experiments, you can get much valuable in- 
formation about your work. Never get to the 
point where you are ashamed to ask somebody 
else for imformation. The ignorant man will 
always be ignorant, if he fears that by asking for 
information he will betray his lack of knowledge. 



GETTING ON IN THE WORLD 215 

Know all there is to be known about the position 
you occupy, but ever feel that there is more for 
you to. learn. There is no person who makes him- 
self of so little use in the world as the one who feels 
that he knows all there is to be known about his 
work. If you are milking cows, and feel that you 
know all there is to be known about that subject, 
you have simply reached a point where you are 
practically useless and unfitted for the work. Feel 
that you can always learn something from some- 
body else. It is a mark of intelligence to learn, 
even from the humblest person. I do not mean 
for you always to put into practice every sugges- 
tion that is made to you, or to agree with every 
statement made to you ; but listen to what people 
say, weigh their plans alongside of your own, and 
then profit by the one which you are convinced is 
the best. Persevere in such conversation, and 
in reading. You will constantly be surprised to 
find how little you really know about your work, 
and how much more somebody else knows about 
it than you do. 

You want to get to the point where you can 
anticipate the wants of your employer. In this 
way you will make yourself of great service to 
him. You do not know how vexing and dis- 



216 CHARACTER BUILDING 

couraging it is to a man to be compelled to say 
every morning to those in his employ: "Do this 
at nine o'clock, and that at twelve o'clock, and 
the other at five;" or how pleasant it is to have a 
person with whom you come in contact anticipate 
the needs of the man who employs him. 

Then you can make yourself valuable and in 
demand just in proportion as you consider that the 
work you are performing is your own. Do not 
consider that it is being performed for a certain 
man or a particular organization. Make haste 
and get to the point where you can feel that every- 
thing connected with the shop in which you work, 
or in the office, or in the stable, is under your care, 
and that you alone are responsible for it. If you 
are at the head of a stable or barn, plan day by 
day how you can best provide for the well-being 
of your cows and horses. When you make your- 
self master of these humble positions, you will find 
that the calls to higher places will come to you. 
The men you see spending most of their time 
looking for higher and more lucrative positions 
are, nine times out of ten, men who have made 
worthless failures in other places. 



EACH ONE HIS PART 

I desire to call your attention for a few minutes 
to-night to the fact that one thing is dependent 
for success upon another, one individual is depen- 
dent for success upon another, one family in a 
community upon other families for their mutual 
prosperity, one part of a State upon the other 
parts for the successful government of the State. 
The same thing is true in nature. One thing can- 
not exist unless another exists; cannot succeed 
without the success of something else. The very 
forces of nature are dependent upon other forces 
for their existence. Without vegetable life we 
could not have animal life; without mineral life 
we could not have vegetable life. So, throughout 
all kinds of life, as throughout the life of nature, 
everything is dependent upon something else for 
its success. 

The same thing is true of this institution and 
of every institution. The success of the whole 
depends upon having every person connected 
with the institution do his or her whole duty. 

217 



218 CHARACTER BUILDING 

We are very apt to get the idea that there are 
high positions and that there are low positions, 
that there is important service and unimportant 
service ; but I believe that God expects the same 
amount of conscientious work from a person in a 
low position as from one in a high position, that 
He expects the same conscientious service whether 
the work be a big task or a little one. We are 
dependent as an institution — every institution is 
dependent — for success, upon the individual 
consciences of those connected with it as teachers 
and students ; and there is nothing that gives me 
more satisfaction and pleasure, and more faith in 
the future of the school, than to see examples of 
conscientious work here. 

I remember a special instance of this kind that 
occurred at one of our Commencements. I be- 
lieve that Commencement, more than any other 
time in the school year, is an occasion when there 
is excitement and a desire to witness the exer- 
cises. After the exercises of that year were over, 
I had occasion to go to the dining room, and I 
found there one of the teachers who from her 
appearance I thought had not attended the exer- 
cises. When I asked her about this, she said: 
"No. I intended to go, but at the last minute I 



EACH ONE HIS PART 219 

saw that there were some dishes here that needed 
to be washed, and I stayed here to see that they 
were washed." 

Now that was one of the finest exhibitions of 
conscientious regard for duty that I ever saw, 
and there are very few persons who would have 
done a thing like that. That we have teachers 
here whose hearts are so much in their work that 
they are willing to do such things as this gives 
me great faith in the future of this school as the 
years go on. 

It takes a person with a conscience, when there 
are public men of note here, a great many strangers 
and many things to attract attention, to be so 
mindful of her duty that she will stay behind and 
wash dishes when every one else is in attendance 
upon the exercises and seeking enjoyment. When 
the people connected with this institution can 
bring themselves up to that point, I have no fear 
for the success of the institution ; and it can suc- 
ceed only as they do bring their consciences up to 
that point. 

If I were to ask you individually as students to 
deliver an address upon this platform, or to read 
an essay, I should not be at all afraid that you 
would fail. I believe that you would carefully 



22o CHARACTER BUILDING 

prepare that address or essay. You would look 
up all the references necessary in order to give you 
what information you needed, and then you would 
get up here and speak or read successfully. I feel 
sure that I would hear something that I should 
not be ashamed of. The average man and woman 
does succeed when before the public. But where 
I fear for your success is when you come to the 
performance of the small duties — the duties which 
you think no one else will know about, the things 
which no one will see you do. It is when you 
think that no one is going to see you washing 
dishes, or getting dirt out of crevices, that I am 
afraid you are going to fail. 

I remember that some time ago when I was 
travelling in a buggy from one New England 
village to another, after we had gone some miles 
on our way, the young man who was driving me 
stopped the horse and got out. I asked him what 
was the matter, and he said that something 
was the matter with the harness. I looked with 
all the eyes I had, and yet I could see nothing at 
fault. Still the man mended a piece of harness 
that he said was not as it should be. It had not 
seemed to me that this fault in the harness had 
been irritating the horse or hindering him from 



EACH ONE HIS PART 221 

going so fast as he ought, but after it had been 
repaired I could see a difference for the better. 
That, to my mind, was a great lesson. It taught 
me how the people of New England have educated 
their consciences so that they cannot allow them- 
selves to let even the smallest thing go undone 
or be improperly done. It is this trait in the 
New England character that has come to make 
the very name itself of that part of the country 
a synonym for success. Don't we wish that we 
had a hundred such men as that driver here ! If 
I could put my hand on a thousand such persons 
as that, we could find employment for all of them 
as soon as they got their diplomas. 

One learns to judge persons by their character 
in this respect. Not long ago I had an oppor- 
tunity to go through the jail of this county. As 
the sheriff showed me through the building I was 
impressed to see how clean everything was, and I 
noticed that the man who seemed to be the janitor 
of the jail, although he too was a prisoner, seemed 
to take a great deal of pride in showing me the 
cleanness of the corners and the general good ap- 
pearance of the place. He seemed to put his 
whole heart into the keeping of that jail clean. 

' 'Who is that man?" I asked the sheriff, after 
we had got out of the janitor's hearing. 



222 CHARACTER BUILDING 

' "He is a prisoner," the sheriff replied, "but I 
believe he is innocent. I do not believe that a 
man can be so honest and faithful about his work 
and be guilty of a crime. When I see how well he 
does his work here, notwithstanding the fact that 
he is shut up here in prison, I believe that he is an 
honest man and deserves his freedom." 

In plain words, then, the problem we must work 
out here is not : — Can you master algebra, or litera- 
ture ? We know you can do that. We know you 
can master the sciences. The general problem 
we have to work out here, and work it out with 
fear and trembling, is : — Can we educate the indi- 
vidual conscience ? Can we so educate a group 
of students that there will be in every one of them 
a conscience on which we can depend. Can we 
educate a class of girls here who will not be satis- 
fied when sweeping their rooms to make the mid- 
dle of the rooms look clean, but leave a trail of 
dirt in the corners and under the furniture ? Will 
they see to it that everything is properly cleaned 
and put in its appropriate place? Can we edu- 
cate a class of young men who will do their duty 
on the farm as they would do it on this platform ? 
Can we educate your consciences so that you will 



EACH ONE HIS PART 223 

do certain things, not because it is the rule that 
they should be done, but because they should be 
done? These are the problems we must work 
out here. 



WHAT WOULD FATHER AND MOTHER 
SAY? 

I think there is no more important or more 
critical time in a person's life than when he or she 
leaves home for the first time, to enter school, or 
to go to work, or to go into business. I think that 
as a general thing you can judge pretty accurately 
what a person is going to amount to in life by the 
way he or she acts during the first year or two 
after leaving home. 

You will find, usually, that if a young man is 
able during this time to stand up against tempta- 
tion, is able to practise the lessons that his father 
and mother have taught him, and instead of fall- 
ing by the wayside gains help and inspiration as 
he goes along from these lessons, he is almost sure 
to prove himself a valuable citizen, one who not 
only will be a help to his parents in their old age, 
but a help to the community in which he lives. 

There is no better way to test an act than to 
ask yourself the question: "What would my 
father or my mother think of this? Would they 

225 



226 CHARACTER BUILDING 

approve, or should I be ashamed to let them know 
that I have done this thing?" If you will ask 
yourselves these questions day by day, I think 
you will find that you will get a great deal of as- 
sistance from them in the shaping of your lives 
while you are here at school. 

I want you to put that question to yourselves 
with regard to deportment, because that is a thing 
on which we must lay emphasis. We can fill 
your heads with knowledge, and we can train 
your hands to work with skill, but unless all this 
training of head and hand is based upon high, 
upright character, upon a true heart, it will 
amount to nothing. You will be no better off 
than the most ignorant. 

Now, one of the ways in which young people 
are likely to go astray, especially when they first 
go away from home to school, is in yielding to a 
temptation to spend their time with persons who 
have mean and low dispositions; persons whom 
you would be ashamed to have your parents know 
that you kept company with. Avoid that. Be 
sure that the young men and women with whom 
you associate are persons who are able to raise 
you up, persons who will help to make you stronger 
in every way. 



WHAT WOULD PARENTS SAY 227 

I do not need to tell you, I am sure, of the con- 
sequences of association with persons who will 
have a bad influence upon you, or the results of a 
disregard of admonitions for good. A student 
who persistently keeps bad company, who breaks 
rules, who is constantly disobedient, who is re- 
peatedly behind at roll call, who time after time 
has to be called up by the officer of the day, or 
watched in the dining room or on the parade 
ground, is the student who in a few years is going 
to bring sorrow to the hearts of his parents. 
There is no getting away from that. 

Only to-day the mother of one of the students 
came here with a message from another mother 
whose son had been sent here. She told me how 
this anxious mother had told her to impress upon 
her son the necessity of obeying every rule here, 
and how she wanted him to put in every moment 
in hard study and honest work. She wanted 
this woman to impress upon the boy how hard 
his mother was struggling every day so that she 
could keep him here, and at the same time pro- 
vide for the younger children of the family at 
home. Now, when this message was delivered, 
where was that boy ? Was he doing as his mother 
was so earnestly praying him to do? No. He 



228 CHARACTER BUILDING 

had already disgraced himself, and had been sent 
away from the institution. How much sorrow 
will he bring to his poor mother's heart when she 
knows ! No wonder he was trying to conceal his 
misconduct and disgrace from her. 

Let me entreat you, then, if you are inclined to 
fritter away the best hours of your lives, think 
how the news of your misconduct will act upon 
the hearts of your parents, those fathers and 
mothers whose every thought is of you. 

I have spoken of these as some of the things that 
we do not want to have you do at school. What 
are some of the things that we do want you 
to learn to do? We want to have you learn to 
see and appreciate the practical value of the 
religion of Christ. We hope to help you to see 
that religion, that Christianity, is not something 
that is far off, something in the air, that it is 
not something to be enjoyed only after the breath 
has left the body. We want to have you see that 
the religion of Christ is a real and helpful thing; 
that it is something which you can take with you 
into your class-rooms, into your shops, on to the 
farm, into your very sleeping rooms, and that 
you do not have to wait until to-morrow before 
you can find out about the power and. helpfulness 
of Christ's religion. 



WHAT WOULD PARENTS SAY? 229 

We want to have you feel that this religion is a 
part of your lives, and that it is meant to be a 
help to you from day to day. We hope to have 
you feel that the religious services that we have 
you attend here are not burdens, but that it is a 
privilege, greatly to be desired, to come to these 
meetings, and into the prayer meetings of the 
various societies on the grounds, and there com- 
mune, not in a far-off, imaginary way, but in an 
humble but intimate way, with the spirit of Jesus. 
We want you to feel that religion is something to 
make you happier, brighter and more hopeful, 
not something to make you go about with long, 
solemn faces. We want you to learn, if you do 
not already know, that in order to be Christlike 
one does not have to be unnatural. 

Then we want to have you to learn to govern your 
actions, not alone for the sake of the result which 
they will have upon yourself and those who are 
near and dear to you, but for the sake of your 
influence upon all with whom you will come in 
contact. Your life here will be largely wasted — 
I am tempted to say wholly wasted — if you fail to 
learn that higher, broader, and far more important 
lesson of your relations to your fellow-students 
and to all the persons by whom you are 



2 3 o CHARACTER BUILDING 

going to be daily surrounded. Your life will be 
wasted if you go away from here and have not 
learned that the greatest lesson of all is the lesson 
of brotherly love, of usefulness and of charity. 
I want to see young men who are here realize this 
spirit to such an extent that they will rise in 
chapel and give their seats to students who are 
strangers at the school. I want to have you get 
to the point where you will go to the matron in 
the dining room and ask her permission to have 
some new student who has not had a chance to get 
acquainted take his meals at a seat beside you. 

Of the many noble traits exhibited by the late 
General Armstrong, none made a deeper impres- 
sion upon me than his supreme unselfishness. I 
do not believe that I ever saw in all my association 
with General Armstrong anything in his life or 
actions which indicated in the slightest degree 
that he was selfish. He was interested not only 
in the black South, but in the white South, not 
only in his own school, but in all schools. Any- 
thing which he could do or say to benefit another 
institution seemed to give him as much pleasure 
as if he were speaking or acting directly for the 
benefit of Hampton Institute. 

I had a pleasant experience of this spirit of a 



WHAT WOULD PARENTS SAY? 231 

desire to be helpful to others a little while ago, 
when I was visiting a certain theological seminary 
in Pennsylvania. I think I was never in such an 
atmosphere as during the two days I spent in that 
institution. I was surrounded by a crowd of 
young men whose sole object seemed to be to 
make me comfortable and happy. Most of these 
young men were far advanced in the study of 
theology and the sciences, and yet they were not 
above serving me, even to the extent of offering 
to black my boots. When I came away several 
wished to carry my luggage to the station. This 
is the kind of thoughtfulness we want to have in 
every corner of this institution. Get hold of the 
spirit of wanting to help somebody else. Seek 
every opportunity possible to make somebody 
happy and comfortable. Do all this, and you will 
find that the years will not be many before we will 
have one of the best institutions on the face of 
the globe, and that you, in helping to make it 
such, have been doing things that, when you ask 
yourselves: "What would father and mother 
say about my doing this?" will enable you to 
answer the question with pride and satisfaction. 



OBJECT LESSONS 

Not long ago an old coloured man living in this 
State said to me: "I's done quit libin' in de 
ashes. I's got my second freedom. " 

That remark meant, in this case, that that old 
man by economy, hard work and proper guidance, 
after twenty years of struggle, had freed himself 
from debt, had paid for fifty acres of land, had 
built a comfortable house, and was a tax-payer. 
It meant that his two sons had been educated in 
academic and agricultural branches, that his 
daughter had received mental training in connec- 
tion with lessons in sewing and cooking. Within 
certain limitations here was a Christian, American 
home, the result of industrial effort and philan- 
thropy. This Negro had been given a chance to 
get upon his feet. That is all that any Negro in 
America asks. That is all that you in this school 
ask. 

What position in State, in letters, or in com- 
merce and in business the offspring of that man 
is to occupy must be left to the future and the 

*33 



234 CHARACTER BUILDING 

capacity of the race. What position you are to 
occupy must be left to your future and to your 
capacity. During the days of slavery we were 
shielded from competition. To-day, unless we 
prepare ourselves to compete with the world, 
we must go to the wall as a race. 

If I were to go into certain communities in the 
United States and say that the German is ignorant, 
I should be pointed to the best-paying truck-farm 
in that neighbourhood, owned and operated by a 
German. If I said that the German is without 
skill, I should be shown the largest machine-shop 
in the city, owned and operated by a German. If 
I said the German is lazy, I should be shown the 
largest and finest residence on the most fashion- 
able avenue, built from the savings of a German 
who began life in poverty. If I said that the 
German could not be trusted, I should be intro- 
duced to a man of that race who is the president 
of the largest bank in the city. If I said that the 
German is not fitted for citizenship, I should be 
shown a German who is a respected and influen- 
tial member of the city government. 

Now, when your critics say that the Negro is 
lazy, I want you to be able to show them the 
finest farm in the community owned and operated 






OBJECT LESSONS 235 

by a Negro. When they ask if the Negro is honest, 
I want you to show them a Negro whose note is 
acceptable at the bank for $5,000. When they 
say that the Negro is not economical, I want you 
to show them a Negro with $50,000 in the bank. 
When they say that the Negro is not fit for citizen- 
ship, I want you to show them a man of our race 
paying taxes on a cotton factory. I want you 
to be able to show them Negroes who stand in 
the front in the affairs of State, of religion, of 
education, of mechanics, of commerce and of 
household economy. You remember the old 
admonition: "By this sign we shall conquer. " 
Let it be our motto. 

There are people in the North who have been 
aiding in the matter of Negro education in the 
South during the last ten, twenty, or even thirty 
years It is in part the money of those people 
that has made this institution possible. Those 
people have a right, as a plain matter of business, 
to ask what are the results of this aid they have 
been giving. What evidences can we present to 
prove to them that their investments in this direc- 
tion have been paying ones? It is, in no small 
measure, the duty of you, as students of Tuskegee 
Institute, to answer, and to answer satisfactorily, 
such a question as that. 



236 CHARACTER BUILDING 

We have reached a point, largely through the 
aid which the North has given to the South dur- 
ing the last thirty years, where there is little oppo- 
sition in the South to the people of the Negro 
race receiving any form of education. You can 
go out from here and plant a school in any county 
in the South, which will not meet with opposition 
from the white residents of the community. 
What is more, in many cases it will receive en- 
couragement, and in some a hearty sympathy 
and support. Not long ago I received fifty 
dollars from a white man in Mississippi to pay 
for the education of a black boy. This man was 
formerly a slave-holder, and at first he was not 
inclined to encourage the education of the Negro, 
but he stated to me frankly, in his letter, that he 
now believes that Tuskegee and similar institu- 
tions are doing the work that the Negro most 
needs to have done. He wanted to show the 
people of the North, he said, that Southern white 
men are as deeply interested in the development 
of the Negro as they are. I have in mind another 
case, of a Southern white man in Alabama who 
during the last year contributed out of his own 
pocket nearly $2,000 for the building and main- 
tenance of a Negro school in his county. Still 



OBJECT LESSONS 237 

another Southern white man, Mr. Belton Gil- 
reath, of Birmingham, Alabama, recently sent 
the Institute his check for $500 — up to that time 
the largest sum which the school had received 
from a Southern man — with this letter : 

"Asa Southern man and the son of one of the 
largest slave owners of the South, I am anxious 
for our people to do all that can reasonably be 
expected of them for the education of the Ne- 
groes, thereby making them more content and 
useful citizens and friends. 

" Furthermore, I think the time has come in 
the South for all our people to consider more 
fully than they have ever done before the ques- 
tion of the education of all of our population; 
and, wherever practicable, to give attention in 
our schools to teaching the art of saving also." 

More recently still, Mr. H. M. Atkinson, of 
Atlanta, one of the most successful business men 
in the entire South, came to Tuskegee Institute 
and made a thorough inspection of our work. 
After he returned to Atlanta I received a letter 
from him from which I quote one paragraph: 
"I enclose my check for $1,000, for the benefit 
of your school, to be used as your judgment dic- 
tates. I was very much impressed by what I 
saw. I will not forget it." 



23 8 CHARACTER BUILDING 

These white people are beginning to see the 
difference between the value of an educated 
Negro and one who is not educated. It is for you 
to demonstrate to them this value more and 
more clearly every year. 



SUBSTANCE vs. SHADOW 

You are here for the purpose of getting an edu- 
cation. Now, one of the results of an education 
is to increase a person's wants. You take the 
ordinary person who lives on a plantation, and so 
long as that person is ignorant, he is content to 
live in a cabin with one room, in which he has a 
skillet, a bedstead — or an apology for one — a 
table, and a few chairs or stools. He is content 
if he has fat meat, corn bread and peas on the 
table to eat, and for clothing he is satisfied to 
wear jeans and osnaburg himself, and to have his 
wife wear a calico dress and a twenty-five 
cent hat. 

But, as soon as that man becomes educated, he 
feels that he must have a house with at least two 
or three rooms in it, furnished with neat and sub- 
stantial furniture. Instead of jeans and osnaburg 
for clothes, he wants decent woollen cloth, neat- 
fitting shoes, and a white collar and a necktie, 
things which he never thought of wearing before 
he became educated. Sometimes he even thinks 
that he must have jewellery. 

239 



2 4 o CHARACTER BUILDING 

So you see the result of education is to increase 
a person's wants. Now, the crisis in that person's 
affairs comes when the question arises whether 
his education has increased his ability to supply 
his wants. Such an ability, I claim, is one of the 
results of industrial education. By such an edu- 
cation as that, while we are getting culture along 
all the lines that in any degree tend to increase 
the wants of a person, we are, in the meantime, 
getting skill to increase our ability to supply 
these wants. And, unless we have this ability, 
we will find, sooner or later, that instead of going 
forward we are going backward. 

I think that the temptation for us, especially 
for those who are only half educated, is to try to 
get hold of a certain kind of shallow culture, in- 
stead of getting the substantial — instead of getting 
hold of real education, of property and material 
prosperity. 

You who study history know how the Pilgrim 
Fathers, who landed at Plymouth Rock in the 
bleak winter of 1620, were willing to wear home- 
spun clothes, and to be married in them, if neces- 
sary, and to have a wedding that in all would not 
cost more than four dollars, I suppose. On the 
other hand, when one of our boys wants to get 






SUBSTANCE vs. SHADOW 241 

married now, he must have a wedding that costs 
not less than one hundred and fifty dollars. His 
wife must have a dress with a long train, and he 
must have a Prince Albert, broadcloth coat that 
he either rents, or buys on the instalment plan. 
They think that they must have a bevy of waiting 
bridesmaids, and there must be a line of hacks 
standing on the outside of the church door that 
will cost him not less than twenty-five dollars. 
Then, after the ceremony, where do these people 
go to live ? The chances are the young man who 
has been to all this expense for the sake of the 
show of it, takes his bride to live in a small cabin 
with only two rooms — sometimes only one room — 
rented at that. 

This is what I mean by getting the superficial 
culture before the dollars are made; grasping at 
the shadow instead of the substance. Now what 
we want to do here is to send out a set of young 
men and young women who will go into the com- 
munities where such mistakes as these are made, 
and show the people by example and by work 
how much better it is to get married for four 
dollars, and to pay as you go, than to get married 
for a hundred and fifty dollars, and then pay four 
dollars a month to live in a rented cabin. When 



242 CHARACTER BUILDING 

I go to New York, or to any large city, there is 
nothing more discouraging than to see people of 
this very class I am speaking of, people who seek 
the superficial culture, the shadow, rather than 
the substantial dollars and education. If you 
stand for a few minutes on any of the fashionable 
streets in the Northern cities, you will see these 
elaborately dressed men, wearing five dollar hats 
on heads that at most are not worth more than 
fifty cents. This is the class of people who have 
got just enough education to make them want 
everything they see, but who have not got enough 
to make them able to get what they want unless 
they go beyond their means to do so. 

A superficial education, too, makes us inclined 
to seek show in other things besides dress. We 
are inclined, for one thing, to seek to show off in 
the use of titles. I remember that once I was 
introduced to a company of about sixty men, and 
out of the whole number there were only six who 
were not doctors, professors, or colonels, or who 
did not have some title. I must say I thought 
more of the six who were just plain misters than I 
did of all the rest, for among the others there were 
some very hard-looking doctors and professors. 
An over-desire for these things shows a shallow 



SUBSTANCE vs. SHADOW 243 

ness in us which makes us ridiculous. We want 
to stop making that kind of mistake. If you are 
a mister, encourage the people to call you by that 
title. If you are a minister and preach interest- 
ing and instructive sermons, people are going to 
be impressed by what you say and not by the 
title you bear. The title is the shadow ; what you 
say is the substance. 

When a person is simple, he is on the strong 
side. People not only have more respect for him, 
but he accomplishes more. I was once at a 
memorial meeting held in honour of a man who 
had done a great and useful work, not only for the 
race but for the school with which he had been 
connected. After about two hours of speech- 
making, somebody took the platform and said 
that a collection ought to be taken up for the 
benefit of the school which this man had worked 
so hard for, to show the appreciation which those 
present felt for this man's services. After a good 
deal of talk, $6.65 was collected. Then the ques- 
tion was raised again as to what was going to be 
done with this money — just how it was to be 
donated to the school. 

The meeting had passed a set of resolutions 
testifying to the high character of the man and 



244 CHARACTER BUILDING 

the worth of his work. Somebody suggested that 
these resolutions be engrossed and sent to the 
school. This was a big word, and the people 
liked the sound of it. Upon inquiry it was found 
that it would cost $6.00 to have the resolutions 
engrossed. It was vote.d to have this done, and 
it was done; when the resolutions would have 
done just as much good typewritten, at a cost of 
twenty-five cents. But the meeting paid out 
the $6.00, and sent the engrossed copy of the reso- 
lutions down to the school, along with the sixty- 
five cents left to be expended for the help of the 
school. That, it seemed to me, was another case 
of grasping the shadow instead of the substance. 
The engrossed resolutions were the shadow; the 
sixty-five cents were all that was left of the sub- 
stance. 

In all these matters we need speedy and effec- 
tive reforms . We want you to go out into the world 
and use your influence toward securing these re- 
forms. There are too many people in the world 
who give their whole lives to grasping at the 
shadow instead of the substance — grasping at a 
sham instead of real worth. We want you to 
teach by word and action simple, right and honest 
living. 



CHARACTER AS SHOWN IN DRESS 

It is surprising how much we can tell about a 
person's character by his dress. I think it is very 
seldom that we cannot tell whether a person is 
ignorant or educated, simply by his dress; and 
there are some few, plain facts about dress that I 
am going to mention to you to-night. While it 
is hard to lay down any rules as to how we must 
dress, I think there are some well-defined princi- 
ples of dress to which all well-educated persons 
will conform. 

I think we will all agree that our dress should 
be clean. There is little excuse for persons wear- 
ing filthy clothes — I think we all will agree as to 
that. It is disgraceful for a man to go about 
with ragged clothes or with clothes fastened to- 
gether with pins where buttons ought to be. It is 
disgraceful for a girl to go about with a soiled 
apron, or with her clothes pinned together. Our 
clothes should be kept clean and in good repair. 
Thus far, I think, we shall have no disagreement. 

But there are some people who make the mis- 
245 



246 CHARACTER BUILDING 

take of giving their whole mind to the subject of 
dress. From the very beginning of the week you 
will find that a great part of their thought and 
attention is given to planning what they are going 
to wear the next Sunday. Some people will go in 
rags all through the week, in order to have some- 
thing showy to wear on Sunday. I think we 
should respect Sunday by putting on something 
different from what we wear during the week if we 
can — although of course these things are largely 
governed by our station in life — but even then it 
certainly is inappropriate to wear our most showy 
clothes on that day. 

Dress in the "way that your pocket will allow. 
There are some persons who not only employ 
all their thoughts in considering what they 
shall wear, but also spend all their money on their 
clothes. 

There are some persons who live for the sake of 
dress. These persons are usually denominated 
"fops. " I think the people in the Northern 
cities are the worst in this respect. If you go 
through Sixth Avenue, in New York, or Cam- 
bridge Street, in Boston, you will see many of 
these fops, who perhaps earn about twenty dollars 
a month, standing on the street corners with kid 



CHARACTER AS SHOWN IN DRESS 247 

gloves on, cigars between their lips, and high hats. 
Now that kind of a person is a foolish fop, and 
one whom we do not care to have in this institu- 
tion. There is no more foolish person than the 
one who spends all he makes, and sometimes more, 
on dress. 

Then, too, I think there are persons who make 
mistakes in the matter of ornaments — what we 
call jewellery. You will find many a man whose, 
income is not twenty dollars a month wearing a 
great brass watch chain with so much brass in it 
that you can almost smell it. You will see men 
and women with three or four brass finger rings, 
or women with brass ear-rings. Do you know 
that one of the most common mistakes among 
the masses of our people in the country is throw- 
ing away their money on cheap jewellery ? Do 
you know that they will come in to town to the 
stores, and spend their money on jewellery worth 
about ten cents apiece, jewellery that you actually 
can get for six dollars and seven dollars a bushel 
at wholesale? Our people spend thousands of 
dollars every year for this cheap jewellery. If 
there is a young man or a young woman here who 
likes jewellery, and is going to indulge in it, be 
sure to get that which is modest. 



248 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Another mistake that some of our people make 
is in wearing flashy or loud dress — dress in which 
bright colours and red ribbons predominate. Our 
dress should be modest ; with few colours. 

We often make a mistake in getting shoes about 
two sizes too small. I saw a girl this morning in 
perfect misery, simply because she had bought, 
and was trying to wear, a pair of shoes about two 
sizes too small. Such people simply punish their 
feet to make people think they have small feet, 
though it is just as honourable to have a large 
foot as a small one ; there is no difference. Then 
we make another mistake in buying cheap, showy 
shoes simply because they have a gloss on them. 
Such shoes are made to attract attention, and not 
for comfort or durability. When you are spend- 
ing your money for shoes, be sure that you get 
something good, something that will last you. 
Do not buy those worthless things, which, when 
they come in contact with water, will shrivel up 
because they are made of cheap material. A 
man cannot respect a girl who punishes her feet 
in-order to make them look small. 

Then, another thing. Some of us think we can 
improve our colour. Some get flour, and others 
get other kinds of mixtures which are called face 



CHARACTER AS SHOWN IN DRESS 249 

powders. There is no use for this. Any man 
will lose respect for a girl who abuses herself in 
this way. Only get something into your head, 
and then you will find that these matters of dress 
will adjust themselves. While some of you do 
not dress so well as you might, yet, if you will 
give the contents of your heads the proper atten- 
tion, you will find that the matter of dress will 
not trouble you. You can get dresses and clothes 
after you have secured your education, but now 
is the only time that you have in which to secure 
the education. 



SING THE OLD SONGS 

There is no part of our chapel exercises that 
gives me more pleasure than the beautiful Negro 
melodies which you sing. I believe there is no 
part of the service more truly spiritual, more ele- 
vating. Wherever you go, after you leave this 
school, I hope that you will never give up the 
singing of these songs. If you go out to have 
schools of your own, have your pupils sing them 
as you have sung them here, and teach them to 
see the beauty which dwells in these songs. When 
in New York, not long ago, I had the pleasure of 
conversing with Prince Henry of Prussia, he 
spoke particularly of the beauty of these songs, 
and said that in his own home, in Germany, he 
and his family often sing them. He asked if 
there was any printed collection of these songs, 
that a copy might be sent him, and I have since 
then forwarded to him a copy of the book of 
plantation melodies collected and published under 
the auspices of Hampton Institute. 

When Christ was upon this earth He said: "A 
251 



252 CHARACTER BUILDING 

little child shall lead them." Whence comes this 
supreme power of leadership ? In this age, when 
we hear so much said about leaders of men, about 
successful leadership, we do well to stop to con- 
sider this admonition of the Saviour. Some are 
said to lead in business, others in education, 
others in politics, or in religion. What is the 
explanation of "A little child shall lead them?" 
Simply this. A little child, under all circum- 
stances, is its simple, pure, sweet self; never ap- 
pearing big when it is little; never appearing 
learned when it is ignorant; never appearing 
wealthy when it is in poverty; never appearing 
important when it is unimportant. In a word, 
the life of the child is founded upon the great 
and immutable, and yet simple, tender and deli- 
cate laws of nature. There is no pretence. There 
is no mockery. 

There is an unconscious, beautiful, strong 
clinging to truth; and it is this divine quality in 
child or in man, in Jew or Gentile, in Christian 
or Mohammedan, in the ancient world or in the 
modern world, in a black man or in a white man, 
that always has led men and moulded their ac- 
tivity. The men who have been brave enough , wise 
enough, simple enough, self-denying enough to 



SING THE OLD SONGS 253 

plant themselves upon this rock of truth and there 
stand, have, in the end, drawn the world unto them, 
even as Christ said: "I will draw all men unto 
me." Such a man was Luther, such a man was 
Wesley, such a man was Carlyle, such a man 
was Cromwell, such were Garrison and Phillips, 
such was Abraham Lincoln, and such was our 
own great Frederick Douglass. 

The thing aimed at by all great souls has been 
to bring men and races back to the simplicity 
and purity of childhood — back to reality. 

What is the most original product with which 
the Negro race stands accredited? Yes, I am 
almost ready to add, with which America stands 
accredited ? Without hesitation I answer : — Those 
beautiful, weird, quaint, sweet melodies which 
were the simple, child-like expression of the 
anguish, the joy, the hopes, the burdens, the 
faith, the trials of our forefathers who wore the 
yoke of slavery. 

Why are they the admiration of the world? 
Why does every attempt at improvement spoil 
them? Why do they never fail to touch the 
tenderest chord — to bring tears from the eyes of 
rich and poor — from king and humblest toiler 
alike ? 



254 CHARACTER BUILDING 

' Listen how in this beautiful song the soul in 
trouble is told not to go to houses and temples 
made by man, but to get close to Nature : 

Ef yer want to see Jesus 

Go in de wilderness, 

Go in de wilderness, 

Go in de wilderness, 

Go in de wilderness. 

If yer want to see Jesus, 

Go in de wilderness 

Leanin' on de Lord. 
Oh brudder, how d'ye feel, when ye come out de wilderness, 

Come out de wilderness, 

Come out de wilderness, 
Oh, brudder, how d'ye feel, when ye come out de wilderness, 

Leanin' on de Lord? 

Then, in another, hear how our foreparents 
broke through all the deceptions and allurements 
of false wealth, and in their long days of weari- 
ness expressed their faith in a place where every 
day would be one of rest: 

Oh, religion is a fortune, 

I r'a'ly do believe. 
Oh, religion is a fortune, 

I r'a'ly do believe. 
Oh, religion is a fortune, 
I r'a'ly do believe, 

Whar Sabbaths hab no end. 
Whar yo' been, poor mourner, whar yo' been so long? 
" Been down in de valley, for to pray; 
An' I ain't done prayin' yet." 

Then, how, when oppressed by years of servj 7 



SING THE OLD SONGS 255 

tude to which others thought there would be no 
end, we hear them break out into quaint and wild 
bursts of appeal to fact: 

My Lord delibered Daniel, 
My Lord delibered Daniel, 
My Lord delibered Daniel; 
Why can't He deliber me ? 
I met a pilgrim on de way, an' I ask him where he's gwine. 
"I'm bound for Canaan's happy Ian', 
An' dis is de shoutin' band. 

Go on. " 

He delibered Daniel from de lion's den, 

Jonah from de belly ob de whale, 
An' de Hebrew children from de fiery furnace. 
Den why not ebery man?" 

Or when the burden seemed almost too great 
for human body to endure, there came this simple, 
child-like prayer : 

O Lord, O, my Lord, O, my good Lord, 

Keep me from sinkin' down. 
O Lord, O my Lord, my good Lord, 
Keep me frBm sinkin' down. 

I tell yo' what I mean to do. 
Keep me from sinkin' down. 

I mean to go to hebben, too. 
Keep me from sinkin' down. 

Or what could go more directly to Nature's 
heart than the pathetic yet hopeful, trustful out- 
burst of the little slave boy who was to be taken 
from his mother to be sold into the far South. 



256 CHARACTER BUILDING 

when it sesmed to him that all earthly happiness 
was forever blighted. Hear him : 

I'm gwine to jine de great 'sociation, 
I'm gwine to jine de great 'sociation, 
I'm gwine to jine de great 'sociation. 

-Den my little soul's gwine to shine, shine; 

Den my little soul's gwine to shine along. Oh ! 

I'm gwine to climb up Jacob's ladder. 
Den my little soul's gwine to shine, shine. 
Den my little soul's gwine to shine along. Oh ! 

I'm gwine to climb up higher an' higher. 
Den my little soul's gwine , etc 

I'm gwine to sit at de welcome table 
I'm gwine to feast off milk an' honey. 

I'm gwine to tell God how-a' you sarved me. 
Den my little soul's gwine to shine, shine. 
Den my little soul's gwine to shine along. Oh ! 

And so it has ever been, so it is, and ever will be. 
The world, regardless of race, or colour, or con- 
dition, admires and approves a real thing. But 
sham, buffoonery, mere imitation, mere super- 
ficiality, never has brought success and never 
will bring it. 

An individual or a race that is strong enough, 
is wise enough, to disregard makeshifts, customs, 
prejudices, alluring temptations, deceptions, imi- 
tations — to throw off the mask of unreality and 
plant itself deep down in the clay, or on the solid 









SING THE OLD SONGS 257 

granite of nature, is the individual or the race 
that will crawl up, struggle up, yes, even burst up ; 
and in the effort of doing so will gain a strength 
that will command for it respect and recognition. 
Before an individual or a race thus equipped, 
race prejudice, senseless customs, oppressions, 
will hide their faces forever in blushing shame. 



GETTING DOWN TO MOTHER EARTH 

One of the highest ambitions of every man 
leaving Tuskegee Institute should be to help the 
people of his race find bottom — find bed rock — 
and then help them to stand upon that foundation. 
If we who are interested in the school can help 
you to do this, we shall count ourselves satisfied. 
And until the bed-rock of our life is found, and 
until we are planted thereon, all else is but plaster, 
but make-believe, but the paper on the walls of a 
house without framework. 

That is one of the stepping stones with which 
nature has provided us. Here the path is plain, 
if we have the courage to follow it. Eighty-five 
per cent, of the people of the Negro race live 
— or attempt to live — by some form of agricul- 
ture. If we would save the race, and lift it up, 
here is the great opportunity around which, in a 
large measure, individual, organized, religious 
and secular effort should centre for the next fifty 
years. 

But to do this we must take advantage of the 
259 



2 6o CHARACTER BUILDING 

forces at hand. We must stand upon our own 
feet, and not upon a foundation supplied by an- 
other. We must begin our growth where our 
civilization finds us, and not try to begin on some 
other civilization . 

To illustrate what I mean, we need not go to 
another race, nor very far from home. In a little 
town in Alabama there was a sturdy, industrious 
black man who for nearly twenty years had lived 
upon rented land, had hired mules and horses to 
work that land, and had mortgaged his crops to 
secure food and clothes. He had driven to church 
on Sunday in a buggy that was not his, and he 
wore good-looking clothes that were not paid for. 
In outward appearance he seemed to prosper. He 
seemed to be what the white men about him were. 

But this black man knew that he was trying to 
stand upon an imperfect basis. And so, one day 
about a dozen years ago, he made up his mind 
that henceforth he would be himself — that he 
would stand upon his own foundation. He told 
the white man to take back his mules, to take 
back his waggon and buggy ; and he gave up the 
rented land. He had resolved to be a man. A 
few acres of land were secured. He made his 
bed in the cotton seed at night. He hired a boy 



DOWN TO MOTHER EARTH 261 

to come to his place at night, and by moonlight he 
pulled a plough which the boy guided. In this 
way a cotton crop was made free from debt. With 
the small surplus which he got from this he bought 
an ox, and with this beast made a second crop 
free from debt. A mule was bought, and then 
another. To-day this man is the owner of a 
comfortable home, is a stockholder in one of the 
banks of his county, and his note or check will be 
honoured by any business house there. While 
others were talking, or debating over second-hand 
doctrines learned by rote, this strong son of 
nature had found himself and solved his own 
problem: 

I might tell you the story of another man of our 
race who began his successful business life in the 
hollow of a tree for his home; without furniture 
or bed-clothing. But that tree, and the land on 
which it stood, were his own. You had better 
begin life in a hollow tree and be a man, than begin 
it in a rented house and be a mere tool, the imita- 
tion of a man. If you were to go into the Western 
part of this country you would find it filled with 
men of the highest culture, profound scholarship, 
and enduring wealth, whose ancestors a few gen- 
erations ago began life in a dug-out, in a hay loft, 



262 CHARACTER BUILDING 

or in a hole in the side of a mountain. Young 
men and young women, there is no escape. If 
we would be great, and good, and useful, we 
must pay the price. And remember that when 
we get down to the fundamental principles of 
truth, nature draws no colour line. 

I do not want to startle you when I say it, 
but I should like to see during the next fifty years 
every coloured minister and teacher, whose work 
lies outside the large cities, armed with a thorough 
knowledge of theoretical and practical agriculture, 
in connection with his theological and academic 
training. This, I believe, should be so because 
the race is an agricultural one, and because my 
hope is that it will remain such. Upon this 
foundation almost every race in history has got 
its start. With cheap lands, a beautiful climate 
and a rich soil, we can lay the foundation of a 
great and powerful race. The question that con- 
fronts us is whether we will take advantage of this 
opportunity ? 

In a recent number of the New York Inde- 
pendent, Rev. Russel H. Conwell, the pastor of 
the great Temple Baptist Church, in Philadelphia, 
a church that has a membership of three thousand 
persons, tells of the pastor of a small country 



DOWN TO MOTHER EARTH 263 

church iii Massachusetts who, in perplexity at 
the eternally recurring question of how to make 
his church pay its expenses, asked Mr. Conwell's 
advice. "I advised him," Mr. Conwell says, 
"to study agricultural chemistry, dairy farming 
and household economy. I meant the advice 
seriously, and he took it seriously. He made his 
studies, and he made them thoroughly. On the 
Sunday when he preached his first practical ser- 
mon which was the outgrowth of his helpful learn- 
ing, its topic was scientific manures, with appro- 
priate scriptural allusions. He had just seven- 
teen listeners. These seventeen, however, were 
greatly interested. Later on, they discussed 
the remarkable departure with their friends who 
had not attended the service. The result was 
that within five Sundays the church was packed 
with worshippers, who had discovered that heaven 
is not such a long distance from earth after all. " 

In the present condition of our race, what an 
immense gain it would be if from every church 
in the vast agricultural region of the South there 
could be preached every Sunday two sermons on 
religion, and a lesson or lecture given on the 
principles of intelligent agriculture, on the im- 
portance of the ownership of land, and on the 



264 CHARACTER BUILDING 

importance of building comfortable homes. I 
believe that if this policy could be pursued, in- 
stead of the now too often poorly clothed, poorly 
fed, and poorly housed ministers, with salaries 
ranging from one hundred to three hundred 
dollars a year, we should soon have communities 
and churches on their feet, to such an extent 
that hundreds of ministers who now live at a 
dying rate would be supported in a manner 
commensurate with the dignity of the profession. 
Not only this, but such a policy would result in 
giving the ministry such an ideal of the dignity 
of labour and such a love for it, that the minister's 
own home and garden and farm would be con- 
stant object lessons for his followers, and at the 
same time sources from which he could draw a 
support which would make him in a large measure 
independent. 

One of the most successful and most honoured 
ministers I know is a man who owns and culti- 
vates fifty acres of land. This land yields him an 
income sufficient to live on each year. This man's 
note or check is gladly honoured at the bank 
Because of his independence he leads his people' 
instead of having to cater to their whims. It 
may be suggested that what I plead for has not 



DOWN TO MOTHER EARTH 265 

been done by others, after this fashion. It was 
done in the early years of the settlement of New 
England, and persevered in by the ministers 
there until the people of the country had become 
sufficiently prosperous to support their ministers 
suitably. Besides, if one race of people, or one 
individual, is simply to follow in the steps of an- 
other, no progress would ever be possible in the 
world. Let us remember that no other race of 
people ever had just such a problem to work out 
as we have. 

What I have tried to say to you to-night about 
agricultural life may be said with equal emphasis 
about city occupations. Show me the race that 
leads in work .in wood and in metal, in the building 
of houses and factories, and in the constructing 
and operating of machinery, and I will show you 
the race that in the long run moulds public thought, 
that controls government, that leads in commerce, 
in the sciences, in the arts and in the professions. 

What we should do in all our schools is to turn 
out fewer job-seekers and more job-makers. Any 
one can seek a job, but it requires a person of rare 
ability to create a job. 

If it may seem to some of you that what I have 
been saying overlooks the development of the 



266 CHARACTER BUILDING 

race in morals, ethics, religion and statesmanship, 
my answer would be this. You might as well argue 
that because a tree is planted deep down in 
Mother Earth, because it comes in contact with 
clay, and rocks, and sand, and water, that through 
its graceful branches, its beautiful leaves and its 
fragrant blossoms it teaches no lesson of truth, 
beauty and divinity. You cannot plant a tree in air 
and have it live. Try it. No matter how much 
we may praise its proportions and enjoy its beauty, 
it dies unless its roots and fibres touch and have 
their foundation in Mother Earth. What is true 
of the tree is true of a race. 






A PENNY SAVED 

A large proportion of you, for one reason or 
another, will not be able to return to this institu- 
tion after the close of the present year. On that 
account there are some central thoughts which I 
should like to impress upon your minds this 
evening, and which I wish you to take with you 
into the world, whether you go out from the 
school as graduates or whether you go as under- 
graduates. 

I have often spoken to you about the matter 
of learning to economize your time, to save your 
time, the matter of trying to make the most of 
every minute and hour of your existence. I have 
often spoken to you about the hurtful reputation 
which a large proportion of the people of our race 
get in one way or another because of this seeming 
inability to put a proper value upon time, or a 
proper value upon the importance of keeping 
one's word in connection with obligations. 

You know to what a large extent the feeling 
prevails — whether justly or unjustly — that as a 

267 



268 CHARACTER BUILDING 

people we cannot be depended upon to keep our 
word; that if we are hired to work in a mill or a 
factory, we work until we have got three dollars 
or four dollars in wages ahead, and then go on 
an excursion, or go to town, and do not return 
to work until what we have earned has been con- 
sumed. 

And so, in one way or another, a large propor- 
tion of us get the reputation that we cannot be 
depended upon for faithful, regular, efficient 
service; and that hurts the race. Wherever you 
go, we wish you by your own actions, by your 
advice, by your influence, to try and disprove 
and counteract that hurtful reputation. You 
can do this in the most efficient manner by your- 
selves being the highest possible example. 

The people who succeed are, very largely, those 
who learn to economize time, in the ways I have 
referred to, and those who also have learned to 
save, not only time, but money. 

Now this may seem to you a very materialistic 
thought for me to emphasize this evening — the 
saving of money — but to us, as a race, it is of 
vital importance. I have heard it expressed 
recently on several occasions that the Negro 
was becoming too much materialized, too much 



A PENNY SAVED 269 

industrialized. Too much attention, it has been 
said, is given to the material side of life. Now 
it seems to me that I have as yet seen very little 
that need arouse our fears in that direction. I 
am not able to understand how a race that does 
not own a single steam railroad, that does not 
own a single street-car line, that owns hardly a 
bank, that does not own a single block of houses 
in a large city — I am not able to understand how 
such a race as that is in danger of becoming 
materialized. When you get millions of dollars 
in banks, when you get millions of dollars in- 
vested in railroad stocks, when you get other 
millions invested in street-car lines, or in the con- 
trol of large factories, great plantations, or in other 
great industrial enterprises in the South, then I 
shall say that there are signs of your becoming 
too materialistic, of your getting to be too rich; 
but I do not see any such signs yet. And until 
we do see such signs, we can rest ourselves in 
peace, I think, so far as that danger is concerned. 
But there is a certain influence of money that 
I do not think we emphasize enough. In the 
first place the getting hold of money, the getting 
hold of a competency, insures us the possession 
of certain influences that we can get in no other 



2 7© CHARACTER BUILDING 

way. In order to get hold of the spiritually best 
and highest things in life there are certain material 
things that we are compelled to have first. In 
the first place the getting hold of money and the 
saving of this money will assure the possession 
of decent comfortable houses to live in. No 
person can do his best work, or can be of the 
greatest service to himself and to his fellow- 
beings, until he is able to live in a decent, com- 
fortable house. You will not be ready for life 
until you own such a house, whether you live in 
it or not. Even if you own such a house and 
rent it out, you are that much more of a man. I 
often hear people say that they do not own a 
house, or property, because they do not expect to 
live long in this place or that place. I have 
known such people to move six times in six years. 
They never will own a house, simply because they 
have got into the habit of giving excuses, instead 
of trying to get to own a home. 

The possession of a decent house insures us a 
certain amount of proper comfort. No person 
can do the best work, can think well, can get along 
well, unless he has a certain amount of comfort, 
and, I may add, a certain amount of good, nour- 
ishing food, well cooked. The person who is not 



A PENNY SAVED 271 

sure where he is going to get his breakfast, or the 
one who is not sure where he is going to get the 
money to pay his next week's board, is the in- 
dividual who cannot do the best work, whether 
the work be physical, mental or spiritual. The 
possession of money enables us to be sure that we 
are going to have comfortable clothing, clothing 
enough to keep the body warm and vigorous, and 
in good, healthy condition. 

The possession of money enables us to get to 
the point where we can do our part in the build- 
ing of school-houses, churches, hospitals; it en- 
ables us to do our part in all these directions. 
Money not only enables us to get upon our feet 
in these material directions, but it has another 
value. The getting of it develops foresight on 
our part. People cannot get money without 
learning to exercise forethought, without plan- 
ning to-day for to-morrow, this week for the 
next week, and this year for next year. People 
cannot get hold of money — or at least cannot 
keep hold of it — who have not learned to exercise 
self-control. They must be able to say "No. " 
I want you students, when you go out from here, 
to be able to say "No. " I want you to 
be able to go by a store and, as you no- 



272 CHARACTER BUILDING 

tice the things in that store — whether candy 
or spring hats, or whatever it is that at- 
tracts you — to be able, notwithstanding the 
fact that you have the money in your pockets 
to buy, to exercise a self-control that will en- 
able you to pass these things by and save your 
money to invest it in a home. Persons cannot 
get hold of money without learning to exercise 
economy, without learning to make everything 
go just as far as it is possible to make it go. < j 

Then, again, the getting money enables a per- 
son to become a good, steady, safe citizen. The 
people who kill and are killed, nine times out of 
ten, whether they are black or white, are people 
who do not own a home, who do not have money 
in the bank. They are people who live in their 
gripsacks. They are gripsack leaders. If their 
gripsacks are in Montgomery to-night, there is 
their home. If they are in Opelika the next night, 
there is their home that night. There are num- 
bers of these people who have no home except 
their gripsacks. Now I don't want you to go 
out from here to be that kind of men and women. 
I want to see you own land. I want to see you 
own a decent home. And let me say right here 
that your home is not decent or complete unless 



A PENNY SAVED 273 

it contains a good, comfortable bath-tub. Of 
the two, I believe I would rather see you own a 
bathtub without a house, than a house without a 
bathtub. If you get the tub you are sure to get 
the house later. So when you go out from here, 
buy a bathtub, even if you cannot afford to buy 
anything else. 

The possession of money, the having of a bank 
account, even if small, gives us a certain amount 
of self-respect. An individual who has a bank 
account walks through a street so much more 
erect; he looks people in the face. The people 
in the community in which he lives have a confi- 
dence in him and a respect for him which they 
would not have if he did not possess the bank 
account. 

Now one great mistake that we make in striv- 
ing to reach these things is that we keep putting 
off beginning. The young man says that he will 
begin when he gets married. The young woman 
says that she will begin when she gets dressed 
well enough, or gets a little further on in life. 
Yielding to this temptation or to that, they keep 
putting off beginning to save. It makes one sick 
at heart, as he goes into the cities, to see young 
men on Sunday afternoons paying two or three 



274 CHARACTER BUILDING 

dollars for a hack or carriage to take young women 
out to drive, when in too many cases the men 
do not earn a salary of more than four dollars a 
week. Young women, don't go driving with 
such men. A man who goes driving on a salary 
of four dollars a week cannot own a home or pos- 
sess a bank account. When you are asked to go 
to drive by such a man as that, tell him you would 
rather he would put his money in the bank, be- 
cause you know he is not able to afford to spend 
it in that way. 

I like to see people comfortably and neatly 
dressed ; but there is no sadder sight than to see 
young men and women yielding to the tempta- 
tion to spend all they earn upon clothes. Then 
when they die — in many, many cases — somebody 
has to pass around a hat to take up a collection 
in order that they may be decently put away. Do 
not make that mistake. Resolve that no matter 
how little you may earn, you will put a part of 
the money in the bank. If you earn five dollars 
a week, put two dollars in the bank. If you earn 
ten dollars, save four of them. Put the money 
in the bank. Let it stay there. When it begins 
to draw interest you will find that you will ap- 
preciate the value of money. 



A PENNY SAVED 275 

A little while ago I was in the city of New Bed- 
ford, the city which was formerly the home of 
Mrs. Hetty Green, who is said to be the richest 
woman in the world. I want to tell you a story 
about her that was told me by a gentleman who 
lived in New Bedford, and who knew Mrs. Green 
when she lived there. For many years they had 
in New Bedford no savings bank that would take 
a very small deposit. Finally a five-cent savings 
bank was opened there. Just after this had been 
done, Mrs. Green told this gentleman that she 
was glad they had opened a five-cent bank, so 
that now she would be able to put that amount 
in and have it draw interest. You who are here 
do not think about five cents as a sum to be saved. 
You think of it only as money to buy peanuts 
and candy, or cheap ribbons, or cheap jewellery. 

On last Sunday evening I was in the home of a 
gentleman in New York who has in his family a 
girl who is now only eighteen years old, and who, 
when she came to this country a few years ago 
and went to work in this family as a maid, could 
not speak a word of English. This girl now has 
fifteen hundred dollars in the bank. Think of it ! 
A young woman coming to this country poor, 
and unable to speak a word of English, has saved 



276 CHARACTER BUILDING 

in a short time fifteen hundred dollars ! I wonder 
how many of you, five years from now, will have 
fifteen hundred dollars in the bank or in some 
other safe kind of property. 

The civilization of New England and of other 
such prosperous regions rests more, perhaps, upon 
the savings banks of the country than upon any 
other one thing. You ask where the wealth of 
New England is. It is not in the hands of mil- 
lionaires. It is in the hands of individuals, who 
have a few hundreds or a few thousands of dollars 
put safely away in some bank or banks. You 
will find that the savings banks of New England, 
and of all countries that are prosperous, are filled 
with the dollars of poor people, dollars aggregat- 
ing millions in all. 

We cannot get upon our feet, as a people, until 
we learn the saving habit ; until we learn to save 
every nickel, every dime and every dollar that we 
can spare. 



GROWTH 

I want to impress upon you this evening the 
importance of continued growth. I very much 
wish that each one of you might imagine, this 
evening, your father and your mother to be look- 
ing at you and examining into every act of your 
life while here. I wish that you might feel, as it 
were, their very heart throbs. I wish that you 
might realize, perhaps as you have never realized 
before, how anxious they are that you should 
succeed here. I wish that you could know how 
many prayers they send up, day after day, that 
your school life may be more and more successful 
as one day succeeds another, that you may grow 
to be successful, studious, strong men and women, 
who will reflect credit upon yourselves and honour 
upon your families. 

Each one of you must have had some thoughts 
about those who are anxious about you, some 
thought for those persons whose hearts are very 
often bowed down in anxiety because they fear 
your school life here will not be successful. Not 

277 



278 CHARACTER BUILDING 

only for your own sake, but for the sake of those 
who are near and dear to you, those who have 
done more for you than anybody else, I want you 
to make up your minds that this year is going 
to be the best one of your lives. 

I want you to resolve that you are going to 
put into this year the hardest and the most 
earnest work that you have ever done in your life, 
to resolve that this is going to be the greatest, the 
most courageous and the most sinless year of life 
that you have ever lived; I want you to make 
up your minds to do this ; to decide that you are 
going to continually grow — and grow more to- 
morrow than to-day. There are but two direc- 
tions in this life in which you can grow ; backward 
or forward. You can grow stronger, or you can 
grow weaker; you can grow greater, or smaller; 
but it will be impossible for you to stand still. 

Now in regard to your studies ; your lessons. I 
want you to make up your minds that you are 
going to be more and more thorough in your les- 
sons each day you remain here ; that you are going 
to so discipline yourselves that each morning will 
find you in the recitation rooms with your lessons 
more thoroughly and more conscientiously pre^ 



GROWTH 279 

pared for the day's work than they were for the 
work of the day before. I want you to make up 
your minds that you are going to be more nearly 
perfect, are going to put more manly and womanly 
strength into the preparation of your lessons 
each day, that you may be more useful. Then 
you will find yourselves wanting to grow, I hope ; 
will find yourselves learning the dignity of labour, 
and that no class of people can get up and stay up, 
can be strong and useful and respected, until they 
learn that there is no disgrace in any form of 
labour. 

I hope you are learning that labour with the 
hand, in any form whatever, is not disgraceful. 
I hope that you are learning, day by day, that all 
kinds of labour — whether with the mind or with 
the hand — are honourable, and that people only 
disgrace themselves by being and keeping in 
idleness. 

I want you to go forward by thoroughness in 
your work ; by being more conscientious in your 
work; by loving your work more to-day than 
you did yesterday. If you are not growing in 
these respects — that is, if you are not going for- 
ward — you are going backward, and are not an- 
swering the purpose for which this institution 



280 CHARACTER BUILDING 

was established, are not answering the purpose 
for which your parents sent you here. 

I want to emphasize the fact that we want you 
to grow in the direction of character — to grow 
stronger each day in the matter of character. 
When I say character, here, I mean to use the 
word in its broadest sense. The institution wants 
to find you growing more polite to your fellows 
every day, as you come in contact with them, 
whether it be in the class-room, in the shop, in 
the field, in the dining-room, or in your bedroom. 
No matter where you are, I want you to find your- 
selves growing more polite and gentlemanly. 
Notice I do not say merely that I want your 
teachers — those who are over you — to find you 
growing more polite ; I want you to find yourselves 
so. If you are not doing this, you are going back- 
Ward, you are going in the wrong direction. 

I want to find you each day more thoughtful of 
others, and less selfish. I want you to be more 
conscientious in your thoughts and in your work, 
and with regard to your duty toward others. 
This is growing in the right direction; not doing 
this is growing in the wrong direction. Nor do I 
want you to feel that you are to strive for this 
spirit of growth for this one year alone, or for the 



GROWTH 281 

time that you are here. I hope that you will con- 
tinue to grow in the forward direction. 

Then, and this is more important still, we want 
you to take this habit of growth — this disposition 
to grow in the right direction — out with you from 
the school, and scatter it as an influence for good 
wherever you go. We want you to take it into 
your schools ; for many of you are going to become 
teachers. We want you not only to begin it when 
you begin teaching in an humble way, but we 
want to see you grow and improve in it every 
year. We want to see you make your school- 
houses more attractive; to see you make every- 
thing in connection with your schools and your 
teaching better and stronger; to see you make a 
school more useful every year that you remain 
as its teacher. 

Then, too, when you go out and get employ- 
ment — no matter of what kind it may be — we 
want to see you grow better in that employment ; 
we want to see you advance in ability, command- 
ing always a larger salary, advancing in value to 
those who employ you. We want to see you grow 
in reputation for being honest, conscientious, in- 
telligent, hard-working ; no matter in what capac- 
ity you are employed. 



282 CHARACTER BUILDING 

Some of you are going out to establish homes 
and settle down in home life. We want to see 
you grow in that direction. Nothing is so dis- 
heartening — there is nothing so discouraging — 
as to see a man or woman settle down in a home, 
and then not to see that home grow more beauti- 
ful, inside and outside ; — to see it, instead of this, 
each year grow dingy and dirty, because it each 
year receives less and less attention. 

We want Tuskegee students to go out from 
here and establish homes that will be models in 
every respect for those about them — homes that 
will show that the lives of the persons who have 
established them are models for the lives of those 
who live about them. If you do this, your lives 
are going to be a constant going forward; for, I 
repeat, your lives are going to be one thing or the 
other, continually going backward or continually 
going forward. 



LAST WORDS 

We have come to the close of another school 
year. Some of you will go out from among us 
now, not to return. Others will go home for the 
summer vacation and return at the end of that 
for the next school year. 

As you go out, there is one thing that I want 
to especially caution you about. Don't go home 
and feel that you are better than the rest of the 
folks in your neighbourhood because you have 
been away at school. Don't go home and feel 
ashamed of your parents because you think they 
don't know as much as you think you know. Don't 
think that you are too good to help them. It would 
be better for you not to have any education, than 
for you to go home and feel ashamed of your 
parents, or not want to help them. 

Let me tell you of one of the most encouraging 
and most helpful things that I have known 
of in connection with the life of our stu- 
dents after they leave this institution. I 
was in a Southern city, and going about among 

283 



284 CHARACTER BUILDING 

the homes of the people of our race. Among 
these homes I noticed one which was so neat look- 
ing that it was conspicuous. I asked the person 
who was with me, "How is it that this house is 
in such good condition, looks so much better than 
some of the others in the neighbourhood ?" "It 
is like this, " said the man who was accompanying 
me. " The people who live there have a son whom 
they sent to your school, at considerable self- 
denial to themselves. This young man came home 
from school a few weeks ago. For some time after 
he came back he did not have work to keep him 
busy, and so he employed his spare time in fixing 
up his parents' home. He fixed the roof and 
chimney, put new palings in the fence where they 
were needed and did such things as that. Then 
he got a stock of paint and painted the house 
thoroughly, two coats, outside and in. That is 
why the place looks so neat." 

Such testimony as that is very helpful. It 
shows that the students carry out from here the 
spirit which we try to inculcate. 

Another thing. Go home and lead a simple 
life. Don't give the impression that you think 
education means superficiality and dress. 

Be polite; to white and coloured people, both. 



LAST WORDS 285 

It is possible for you, by paying heed to this, to 
do a great deal toward securing and preserving 
pleasant relations between the people of both races 
in the South. Try to have your manners in this 
respect so good that people will notice them and 
ask where you have been, at what school you 
learned to be so polite. You will find that polite- 
ness counts for a great deal, not only in helping 
you to get work, but in helping you to keep it. 

Don't be ashamed to go to church and Sunday 
school, to the Young Men's Christian Association 
and the Christian Endeavour Society. Show 
that education has only deepened your interest 
in such things. Have no going backward. Be 
clean, in your person, your language and in your 
thoughts. 

It seems appropriate during these closing days 
of the school year to re-emphasize, if possible, 
that for which the institution stands. We want 
to have every student get what we have — in our 
egotism, perhaps— called the "Tuskegee spirit"; 
that is, to get hold of the spirit of the institution, 
get hold of that for which it stands; and then 
spread that spirit just as widely as possible, and 
plant it just as deeply as it is possible to plant it. 

In addition to the members of our graduating 



286 CHARACTER BUILDING 

class, we have each year a large number of students 
who go out to spend their vacations. Some of 
these will return at the close of vacation, but some, 
for various reasons, will not return. Whether 
you go out as graduates, whether you go out to 
return or not to return, it is important that all 
of you get hold of the "Tuskegee spirit"; the 
spirit of giving yourselves, in order that you may 
help lift up others. In no matter how small a 
degree it may be, see that you are assisting some 
one else. 

Now, after a number of years' experience, the 
institution feels that it has reached a point where 
it can, with some degree of authority, give advice 
as to the best way in which you can spend 
your life. 

In the first place, as to your location — the 
place where you shall work. I very much hope 
that the larger part of the students who go out 
from Tuskegee will choose the country districts 
for their place of work, rather than the large 
cities. For one thing, you will find that the larger 
places are much better supplied with workers and 
helpers than is true of the towns, and especially 
of the country districts. The cities are better 
supplied with churches and schools, with every- 



LAST WORDS 287 

thing that tends to uplift people; and they are 
at the same time much more prolific of those 
agencies which tend to pull people down. Not- 
withstanding this latter fact, the greater portion, 
by far, of those who need help live in the country 
districts. I think a census report will show that 
eighty per cent, of our people are to be found in 
the country and small towns. I advise you, then, 
to go into the country and the towns, rather than 
into the cities. 

Then, as to the manner of work. You must 
make up your minds in the first place, as I have 
said before, that you are going to make some 
sacrifice, that you are going to live your lives 
in an unselfish way, in order that you may help 
some one. Go out with a spirit that will not allow 
you to become discouraged when you have oppo- 
sition, when you meet with obstacles to be over- 
come. You must go with a determination that 
you are going to succeed in whatever undertaking 
you have entered upon. 

I do not attempt to give you specific advice as 
to the kind of work you shall do, but I should say 
that in a general way I believe that you can ac- 
complish more good — and perhaps this will hold 
good for the next fifty years here in the South — 



288 CHARACTER BUILDING 

by taking a country school for your nucleus. 
Take a three months school, and gradually im- 
press upon the people of the community the need 
of having a longer school. Get them to add one 
month to three months, and then another month, 
until they get to the point where they will have 
six, seven or eight months of school in a year. 
Then get them to where they will see the impor- 
tance of building a decent school-house — getting 
out of the one-room log cabin school-house— and 
of having suitable apparatus for instruction. 

There are two things you must fix your mind 
on • the building of a suitable school-house and the 
arousing in the people, at the same time, a spirit 
that will make them support your efforts. In 
order to do this you must go into the country 
with the idea of staying there for some time at 
least. Plant yourself in the community, and by 
economical living, year by year, manage to buy 
land for yourself, on which to build a nice and 
comfortable home. You will find that the longer 
you stay there the more the people will give you 
their confidence, and the more they will respect 
and love you. 

I find that many of our graduates have done 
excellent work by having a farm in connection 



LAST WORDS 289 

with their schools. This is true, also, of many 
who did not remain here to graduate. I have in 
mind such a man. He has been teaching school 
in one of the counties of this State for seven or 
eight years. He has lengthened the school year 
to eight months. He has a nice cottage with four 
rooms in it, and a beautiful farm of forty acres. 
This man is carrying out the "Tuskegee idea." 

There will be some of you who can spend your 
life to better advantage by devoting it to farming 
than to any other industry. I speak of farming 
particularly, because I believe that to be the great 
foundation upon which we must build for the 
future. I believe that we are coming to the point 
where we are going to be recognized for our worth 
in the proportion that we secure an agricultural 
foundation. Throughout the South we can give 
ourselves in a free, open way to getting hold of 
property and building homes, in a way that we 
cannot do in any other industry. In farming, 
as in teaching, no matter where you go, remember 
to go with the " Tuskegee spirit. " . 

I want the boys to go out and do as Mr. N. E. 
Henry is doing*; I want the girls to go out and do 
as Miss Anna Davis and Miss Lizzie Wright are 
doing. I want you to go out into the country 



2 9 o CHARACTER BUILDING 

districts and build up schools. I would not ad- 
vise you to be too ambitious at first. E>e willing 
to begin with a small salary and work your way 
up gradually. I have in mind one young man 
who began teaching school for five dollars a month ; 
another who began teaching in the open air under 
a tree. 

Then, too, I want you to go out in a spirit of 
liberality toward the white people with whom 
you come in contact. That is an important 
matter. When I say this I do not mean that you 
shall go lowering your manhood or your dignity. 
Go in a manly way, in a straightforward and 
honourable way, and then you will show the white 
people that you are not of a belittling race, that 
the prejudice which so many people possess can- 
not come among you and those with whom you 
work. If you can extend a helping hand to a 
white person, feel just as happy in doing so as in 
helping a black person. 

In the sight of God there is no colour line, and 
we want to cultivate a spirit that will make us 
forget that there is such a line anywhere. We 
want to be larger and broader than the people 
who would oppress us on account of our colour. 

No one ever loses anything by being a 



LAST WORDS 291 

gentleman or a lady. No person ever lost 
anything by being broad. Remember that 
if we are kind and useful, if we are moral, 
if we go out and practise these traits, no 
matter what people say about us, they cannot 
pull us down. But, on the other hand, if we are 
without the spirit of usefulness, if we are without 
morality, without liberality, without economy 
and property, without all those qualities which 
go to make a people and a nation great and strong, 
no matter what we may say about ourselves and 
what other people may say about us, we are losing 
ground. Nobody can give us those qualities 
merely by praising us and talking well about us; 
and when we possess them, nobody can take them 
from us by speaking ill of us. 






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